Psydoll
by reganmacneil
Summary: Dahlia Dreycourt thought that she was just a mutant. She certainly didn't believe that she could be some kind of superhero like Iron Man or 'that hero guy from the 40's', but when her mother's necklace crash lands into her dorm, Dahlia is suddenly the target of a malevolent alien intent on stealing said necklace and using it to open the Hell Dimension. Even worse, it's a Monday...
1. Prologue

**Hello there! This is my new story, and is going to be both a prequel and a stand alone fic. It has my original heroine, Psydoll (Dahlia Dreycourt) in it, and I am planning on writing another story after this one, but following the Avengers Assemble storyline, with Psydoll added in. Think of this story as what Iron Man is to Avengers Assemble; a movie about one of the Avengers, before Avengers Assemble takes place.**

**I do not own Avengers. If I did, I would be very happy and create Dahlia as an actual superhero with her own comic book!  
**

Prologue

_Humans live in such ignorance. Everyday, they walk around, oblivious to what is really happening up in the stars. Yet, it was to be the human world that would be the battle ground, host planet to the inevitable war._

An awful, burning, diseased world. Screaming, tormented shadows. Monsters, dripping saliva, slithering and crawling through the hellish brown-red fog. Humanoid creatures, with blank, milky stares, slowly rotting away in the darkness. It looks like hell, because it is hell.

_The Hell dimension, where criminals and unspeakable evil of all races are exiled for eternity. It is both a help and a liability, a cosmic dumping ground that helps to bring peace, but also carries the risk of disaster. _

A tall, imposing figure, wearing a long, billowing cloak. His face covered by a simple, glossy black mask. In contrast, the small woman facing him looks weak as she wields a lethal looking blade. The masked figure's eyes glow a malevolent blue colour, and in response the woman's eyes also glow the same blue. Her braided white hair whips behind her as she flys at the masked one, blade raised above her head. At the last second, the masked one parries her blade with a similar one, this one crusted with blood.

_There was one who sought to turn the dimension into a weapon. His name was Koruth. He had been a valued member of his society, but tragedy had befallen him when his lover was imprisoned within the Hell dimension. Blind with rage, Koruth vowed to unlock the dimension, permanently, releasing all of the evil resting there into the universe, including his beloved._

Koruth, the masked one, and the woman fight viciously. All around them, others are fighting. Some are like the woman, human in appearance with glowing blue eyes, some are also humanoid, but lack blue eyes, and some are clearly not human at all.

Koruth suddenly tumbles out of the way of the woman's attacks, and thrusts his hand out. She flies back, smacking into a black marble pillar. Koruth immediately begins to sprint through the surrounding melee, towards a collection of slowly rotating silver hoops in the middle of the grand, marble hall. A blond man with blue eyes goes for him, but Koruth stabs him in the stomach, and continues.

The woman recovers, and begins to make her way slowly after him. Koruth has his back to her, and has his hands pressed against tall, jagged purple stones coming up out of the floor. The rings are beginning to spin faster and faster. A small portal is beginning to form in the middle, growing steadily bigger and bigger.

The woman, in a last burst of strength, thrusts her blade through him. He falls, and the portal begins to pulse, flashing and shaking. Koruth looks up at the woman, his eyes fading back to brown. Before the woman can stop him, he disappears in a flash of blue energy, as the portal begins to cause havoc and destruction.

_The Melorans, the creators of the Hell dimension, realized with horror that their salvation could be turned against them and the rest of the cosmos in the worst way possible, by one of their own kind. For Koruth was a Meloran, and forever a dark shadow staining their history._

_The portal was fractured, not fully closed, yet not fully open. The only way to stop the ensuing devestation was to close the portal permanently, by placing the unstable fracture into a small, artificial dimension._

The white haired woman is given a glowing purple pendant, a smaller version of the jagged crystals set in front of the Hell portal. She places it around her neck, and walks away from the black palace. _  
_

_The fracture was given to the defeater of Koruth, a woman named Haela. She did not remain on Melor, instead deciding to travel to Earth. The Melorans breathed a sigh of relief, for they believed that they, and the cosmos, was safe.__  
_

_And so it remained for many years, until the portal was threatened once more...  
_

There was a crowd of people gathered in the black marble hall. The rings of the portal were completely still, the purple crystals dull. Suddenly, the large doors to the hall flew open, and Haela stormed through them, trailed by two nervous looking men. She looked a good few years older than she did fighting Koruth, but her eyes are glowing again, just as brightly.

"What the hell is going on!" She demanded. There was muttering in response to her choice of words.

"Hell!" One woman shouted."The Keeper has spoken!"

"Hell is upon us!"

Haela rolled her eyes at the panicking crowd.

"It's just an Earth phrase," she informed them, folding her arms."Honestly, you'd think you would know this by now, what with all of the surveillance you've been conducting on my family lately."

"You...know about the precautions...?" a muscled, golden haired man, standing in front of the portal, asked uncertainly.

"Of course, I'm not an idiot," Haela gestured to the men either side of her."Besides, these two haven't exactly been discrete. You know, my daughter called me yesterday because she thought that she was being stalked."

Haela pointed at the blonde in a menacing fashion.

"Now, I don't mind about you keeping an eye on me, I understand that, with me being the 'Keeper'," she narrowed her eyes at him."But you leave my girl out of this, Sil. She has nothing to do with Melor, or the portal. She doesn't even know you exist."

"We know," Sil nodded.

"_What?_" Haela near spat at him. Sil gave her a cool stare.

"We have, of course, been monitoring the child," he informed her. Sil clicked his fingers, and what looked like an oval of blue glass was given too him. He held it up for Haela to see, and a picture appeared on the surface. It showed a young woman, with blonde and pink hair, wearing a short black dressed patterned with roses and skulls, sitting drinking coffee, and reading a book entitled 'Steampunk!'.

Haela's eyes widened , before she marched over to Sil and grabbed the oval, flinging it across the room, where it shattered against the doors. She turned back to Sil, her eyes glowing with a new intensity.

"How dare you!" She screamed."My daughter is none of your business!"

"With all due respect, Keeper, she is technically of Meloran blood," a red haired woman commented. Haela was momentarily silenced by this.

"She is still under the impression that she is a...ah...what do the humans refer to them as?" Sil looked to Haela for guidance. Haela gave him a venomous scowl.

"A mutant," she nodded."She is. She hasn't told me, but I heard her thoughts."

"Good, keep it that way," Sil ordered. Haela's expression soured further at being told what to do, but she did not argue.

"You didn't pull me here to talk about Dahlia, did you?" Haela asked, eyebrow raised."So, what's going down?"

"Going down? Why would something be going downwards?" Sil questioned.

Haela gave a sigh,"It's just another Earth...nevermind, what could be so bad that you drag me from Earth to Melor on such short notice?"

Sil hesitated, and the room broke out into whispers again.

"Sil, I could just reach in and pluck it out of your head, and, frankly, I am very tempted to at this moment in time, so _tell-me-what-is-going-on_!" The last few words were practically snarled. Sil sighed, and placed his hands behind his back, strolling towards her. Everybody in the room followed his progress. He stopped just in front of her, his eyes full of despair.

"Koruth has been seen again," he said.

Those five small words made Haela's entire persona change. Immediately she was on her guard, her fist clenched. She ground her teeth together angrily.

"_No,_" she spat. Sil nodded slowly, his expression suddenly weary.

"Narla, please," Sil gestured to the red head behind him. She unsheathed a sword from her belt and handed it to him. He held it out to Haela, and she took it with shaking hands.

"How..." she said, looking utterly mortified as she held Koruth's blood encrusted blade. Quickly, she gave it back to Sil, who gave her a pitying look.

"It was found buried in one of our ambassadors," Sil told her solemnly."Then, the next day, another ambassador was sent to us...in pieces."

"How can you be sure it's him?" Haela put her hands defiantly on her hips."He was fatally wounded! He would have died a minute or two after he teleported, even with some medical help!"

"Really?" Sil asked.

He then thrust the bloodied sword through her stomach. Haela gave a scream of pain, and fell to the ground as he retracted it. There were screams around the hall as a handful of other Melorans suddenly stabbed their fellows savagely.

Sil straightened, a long cloak forming around him. A mask also formed over his face, his cheekbones becoming more prominent underneath the mask. He grew a good few inches taller, so that he towered over the fallen Haela, now bleeding badly all over the floor.

"Did he now?" Koruth, in Sil's placed, questioned mockingly. Haela looked around the hall, where various Melorans were beginning to morph into vicious looking lizard creatures. Koruth grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up, slamming her bleeding body up against the dull portal crystals.

"You know what I want," he hissed, as Haela's hand went to her throat, covering the simple leather cord visible around it."And I am not in the mood to ask nicely."

"Go to hell, bitch," Haela gave him a weak smile, as she spotted Narla sneaking up behind him.

"That's the plan, dear," Koruth said, in an almost friendly tone. He grabbed Haela's hand and began to prise it away from her neck. Haela shook her head, now fully grinning at him.

"I've always been stronger than you, _Kori,_" Haela mocked him. Her insult seemed to completely bounce off of him.

"That is true, but then again, you didn't have a huge hole in you then, did you?" Koruth continued in his attempt whilst Narla crept ever closer.

"Oh, and Narla?" Koruth asked calmly, as if making normal conversation. Narla froze, her sword raised above her head.

Koruth turned, still gripping Haela by the neck,"Would you be a dear, and stab yourself through the chest?"

His eyes glowed a green colour this time, and Narla, tears in her eyes, complied with his wishes.

"YOU BASTARD!" Haela screamed, her free hand reaching up to smash the back of his head. Koruth turned his head, and grabbed her fist, flinging her back against the silver hoops. Haela's grip on her throat loosened as her wound bled out even more. Koruth was on her in an instant, ripping the leather cord from her throat, and shoving her out the way of the portal hoops.

On the end of the cord, was the small, purple fracture. Koruth's eyes went back to blue, and he held the crystal up.

"STOP!" He shouted. The lizard men stopped fighting, and the remaining Melorans kneeling slowly down to the ground, eyes wide with fear, staring at the crystal in Koruth's fist.

"We have been successful!" He shouted, before gesturing to Haela."The Keeper is dying, and I have the fracture!"

He held it up for all to see.

"Drama...queen..." Haela gasped. Koruth gave a short bark of laughter, and knelt down beside her.

"Still with the pathetic insults?" He asked."When will you admit defeat, Haela?"

"When I _am_ defeated," Haela gave him a smug, victorious grin.

Koruth's eyes glowed brightly, and he held up the crystal. Suddenly, he smashed it against the marble floor, where it shattered into five, very normal, pieces of amethyst. Haela laughed at him, blood pouring out of her mouth now.

"Got you...bitch," she smiled. Koruth looked at her, clearly furious.

He took out his sword and stabbed her right through the neck.

"No matter," he muttered to himself, standing up and sheathing his blade."An object containing that much power never stays hidden for long."

He walked over to the shattered glass, still showing Haela's daughter. He picked up one shard, showing half of Dahlia's face.

"And I think I know exactly where to begin."

**O.K, I know the main character, Dahlia Dreycourt (Psydoll), has a really small part in this opening, and it's a little boring at the start, but bear with please. It will get more interesting, and as it is an Avengers story, there will be at least one Avenger appearing. ****  
**

**Until next time!  
**

**Reganmacneil  
**

**P.S Who recognises the girl playing Dahlia? She is in the cover photo! Tell me her name for lots of cookies, or just the band she is in, or even her line of makeup and fashion. Leave the answer in the reviews section please, and I may send you a sneak peak of later chapters, if you want.  
**


	2. Mondays Truly Do Suck

**Hello**,** readers. Here it comes, the introduction of Dahlia Dreycourt AKA Psydoll. You'll understand the name as the story goes on, trust me. I know people may be confused as to why this is just an Avengers fic, and not a crossover, but mutants (as in the mutants in X-Men) are only mentioned, and no characters from X-Men will be appearing in the story. Sorry if anybody is upset about this. The Avengers and the X-Men are both part of the Marvelverse, so it makes sense that there would be mutants dotted around, just not part of the main cast. ****  
**

**I do not own the Avengers, or the X-Men. This is unfortunate, but I'll get over it someday.  
**

Chapter 1: Mondays Truly Do Suck**  
**

Dahlia did not like Mondays. As far as she was concerned, Garfield had it just right; Mondays _sucked_.

After her routine visit to Cammie's Cafe, an adorable little coffee place near campus, and a decent amount of reading (her book on Steampunk was currently Dahlia's prized possession), she made her way back to her dormitory, now as wide awake as she could possibly be at 9 o'clock in the morning (which, admittedly, wasn't _very_ awake, but she tried).

"Dahlia, darling," Molly Mason, the closest thing to best friend that Dahlia had, was lying on the floor, a book resting on her stomach. She smiled up at her, completely awake. Dahlia privately hated her for a few seconds.

"Never say that again," she said, stepping over Miss Mason and collapsing onto her bed. She re-opened her book, and began to read again, hoping that Molly would take the hint that today wasn't the day for in depth discussions about life, or something similar.

"You look like somebody killed your puppy," Molly noted, sitting up, and adding, as an afterthought,"They didn't, right?"

"No," was Dahlia's short answer. She turned the page and continued reading.

"Your kitten?" Molly pressed.

"No."

"Penguin?" She could hear Molly grinning.

"Yes, my penguin died, discussion over, goodbye," Dahlia turned over so that she was facing the wall. Molly rolled her eyes. Most people would have screamed at girl for being a bitch, but Molly knew that she was just having one of her 'the world is conspiring against me' days.

"O.K, but when you're ready to talk about the...penguin, I'll be in the library," Molly stood up, walking over too the door."See you later, Dollface."

"That's not my name," Dahlia muttered as she heard the door close. She rolled over onto her back, and set the book down. She had a couple of hours to kill before she really had to do anything, and was grateful for them. There was a lot on her mind; for instance, she had been feeling like something bad was going to happen ever since she had woken up at the ungodly hour of 5am (any hour before 10 was classed as ungodly, as a matter of fact), and this feeling was worsening. She wouldn't have minded, but her bad feelings usually meant something bad was going to happen.

It hadn't helped that she had heard the new server at Cammie's unsavory thoughts when he was serving her, and had to fight the urge to jump over the counter and wail on his skinny ass. It would have been hard to explain, and would probably get her arrested, something which she didn't need. They would have been bound to find out her secret, and that would be the worst thing to happen, in the history of worst things. She knew that people didn't like mutants.

She blamed her Dad for her abilities. From what she had learned, the mutant gene was passed on from the father, and besides, her mother definitely wasn't a superhero. Neither had her father been, come to think of it.

Yes, her father was dead. No, Dahlia didn't mourn the loss every day. She was young when it had happened, about 6, as a matter of fact, and whilst she felt a little sad about it, she wasn't like most people. If she did for some reason become suddenly depressed about it (so far, she hadn't, ever, which worried her a little), the buzz of others thoughts would distract her in an instant.

Dahlia was psychic. Telepathic, and occasionally able to glimpse the future. O.K, so she saw the future once. She was also drunk at the time, so couldn't really say for certain whether it was her imagination or not. She liked to believe that it wasn't. For some reason, it made her feel slightly bad-ass.

Being able to hear others thoughts was sometimes annoying, granted (her run in with Perverted Server was a classic example of this annoyance), but it could also be entertaining. Useful, too. For example, once she heard the intentions of a mugger when out late one night. Determining which alleyway he was lurking in, she quickly found another way around, thus saving herself an unfortunate and unpleasant occurrence.

It also helped when playing strip poker.

Dahlia sighed and checked the time. Almost 10, her digital clock told her. Still over an hour to kill before her Computer Programming lecture. The girl smiled a little smugly, and turned onto her back again, hands now behind her head, looking completely relaxed.

"Come on then," the psychic muttered."Let's see what you losers are thinking about."

She closed her eyes and gave a deep breath, before rapidly extending her telepathic field.

Dahlia's telepathy was quite unique. Whilst most telepaths just heard people's thoughts all of the time, Dahlia had the choice not to. She had a telepathic 'bubble', as she liked to call it, that she could expand and retract at will. She wasn't sure what her full extension was, but knew that she could pretty much extend the field all over campus, but it exhausted her. When she wanted some peace and quiet, she retracted the field until it was like a current over her skin, and limited herself to touch telepathy. Generally, Dahlia kept it at 5 metre radius, giving herself a slight advantage, but not overwhelming herself. It was only when she was alone and relaxed that she risked extending it over most of campus.

Immediately, a buzz of thoughts hit her. Dahlia gave a small grimace, trying to make sense of the tangle of thoughts. She found Molly, in the library like she said she would be. Dahlia quickly skipped over her-she didn't give a crap about invading the others privacy, but Molly was off limits, even though she obviously didn't know it. It was just an unspoken rule that Dahlia had set herself-absolutely _no_ reading the minds of friends or family if you can help it.

A Dahlia reached out, she noticed something weird. Like a warm sensation at the back of her mind, slowly getting hotter. She experimentally retracted her field, and the warmth disappeared for a few seconds, before coming back. Dahlia did not panic, though she was admittedly a little creeped out. She retracted her field a couple of meters. It disappeared, and returned. The warmth wasn't quite a thought, but it also wasn't quite an emotion. It was more like an energy, and it seemed to be getting closer to her...

"Master," a lizard man hissed. Koruth stood, staring at the silver hoops as if willing them to begin moving again. Haela's blood covered the floor, though her corpse was gone. He turned to the lizard, and nodded.

"Yes, Slaak?"

"We have located the fracture," Slaak said, sounding excited. His forked tongue flicked out once, before he continued."You were correct, the Keeper sent it to her descendant!"

"You are certain of this, Slaak?" Koruth asked, dangerously quiet."After all, I would hate for us to mutilate a poor, innocent girl because you were wrong."

Slaak was silent, and he hissed, a worried sound. His golden eyes widened a little, and he held out one of the Meloran glass observers. Koruth took the blue oval gently, and studied the image on the screen. It showed a normal, college courtyard, busy with students who were oblivious to the fact that they were being watched at that very moment. Suddenly, in the corner of the glass, a purple flash became visible, high in the sky. Koruth's eyes glowed a feverish blue, and he swept past Slaak, tossing the oval to the ground.

"We leave immediately," Koruth ordered."Round up your army."

He pushed open the large marble doors.

"_Now_ you will be defeated, Haela."

Meanwhile, down on Earth, a scanner picked up an astoundingly large energy signature. The man that was supposed to be watching the scanner made a shocked noise at the back of his throat as it began to make an alert sound, attracting the attention of the entire building.

Director Fury, in the middle of a conference with the senior Agents of SHIELD, paused as the alert sounded.

Dahlia, completely oblivious to the happenings elsewhere, was beginning to panic a little. She retracted her shield completely, and launched herself off of her bed, sprinting, as well as she could in her trusty New Rocks, to the window. She narrowed her eyes against the glare of the sun on the glass, and glanced around the courtyard below. When she saw nothing, she slowly extended her field again.

The warmth was now slightly uncomfortable. Dahlia closed her eyes, and tried to imagine the direction she was receiving the feeling from. If her field was a dome over campus...Dahlia retracted her little psychic bubble until the warmth vanished. The moment it was back, she attempted to pinpoint where it had broken through. It wasn't on the ground, nor a little way above it...

It was coming from the frickin' _sky_!

Dahlia's eyes flew open, and she spotted the purple missile heading straight for her window.

"Ah, hell!" She yelled, diving out of the way just in time as the missile smashed through her dorm window.

"Sir!" The Agent manning the scanner that had picked up the signal from said purple missile was clearly nervous in the presence of the Director himself. Fury loomed over him, even when he stood up.

"What the hell is going on, Agent Kilner?" Fury demanded. Kilner gestured to the scanner, indicating the large pulsing circle, and the flashing letters reading 'foreign energy detected'.

"It entered the atmosphere about 10 minutes ago, Director," he informed the master spy.

"Is it heading towards anything?" The look on Fury's face was enough to make anyone a nervous wreck, but Kilner was an agent of SHIELD. Granted, he was a little apprehensive, but ploughed on with the relaying of information regardless.

"We believe it was, Director," Kilner confirmed, before returning to the scanner. He tapped the keyboard for a while, until he pulled up a sequence of images, showing what looked like a thin, purple meteor powering through the atmosphere."These were taken by our satellites as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. It appeared to be heading in a certain direction, and did not stray off its course even once."

"Appear_ed_?" Fury had noticed the past tense Kilner had used."You mean this foreign object has already landed?"

"It doesn't seem to be moving, so we can assume that it is stationary for the time being," Kilner said.

"Where?" Fury demanded immediately. Kilner was at the keyboard again in seconds. A satellite photograph of the USA appeared on the screen. Kilner zoomed in, and in, and in, until the screen showed a bird's eye view of Dahlia's university.

"The Andrew Forger University of Technology," the screen split, half the satellite shot, half information on the place."Right here in New York and..."

Kilner trailed off, frowning at the screen.

"_And_?" Fury prompted impatiently. Kilner moved out of the way of the screen, pointing to a section of information below the background info.

"Apparently SHIELD is already monitoring the place, Director," Kilner said."One of the students-"

"Dahlia Dreycourt," Fury cut him off. He knew SHIELD's going ons like the back of his hand."Codename:Psyche. SHIELD has been monitoring her for a while. Primarily a telepath, though we believe that she is capable of telekinesis and mind control."

"A mutant?" Kilner asked, not particularly expecting an answer. Director Fury grunted slightly at his question, but did not answer. Kilner wasn't sure whether to take this as a yes or a no. He settled for yes.

"If the object landed there, from what I know of Haela Dreycourt, it was meant for Dahlia," Fury straightened, before using his earpiece to contact Agent Hill.

"Hill?"

"Director Fury?" Maria Hill responded.

"Send 2 agents too the Andrew Forger University of Technology," he ordered."Tell them to bring in Dahlia Dreycourt, codename: Psyche. Make sure that they read her file, or they may be in for a nasty surprise."

Dahlia slowly sat up from her rather ungraceful position on the floor. There was a small cloud of dust settling, and through the dust the telepath could see a small, purple object, glowing brightly. She stood up, and took a step forward, jumping when there was the sound of glass crunching underfoot.

"Oh, this is gonna take some explaining," Dahlia muttered, moving closer to the glowing...whatever it was. She waved the dust away, and saw what appeared to be a miniture crater in her dormitory floor. In the middle of the crater, sat a jagged purple crystal, still glowing brightly. Dahlia closed her eyes, then opened them again. When the crystal did not turn out to be a figment of her imagination (unfortunately), Dahlia took a large step backwards, and sat down heavily on her bed, eyes wide.

"_God_, I hate Mondays," she groaned.

**There it is. Chapter 2. I will try to update at least once every week, though I admit that I am really bad at keeping updating promises, so we'll see. Director Fury doesn't technically count as an Avenger, so he's not the Avenger appearing in this story. **

**The girl playing Dahlia Dreycourt is Amelia Arsenic, AKA Destroy-x of Angelspit. Check out her blog and website, as well as Angelspit's music and see what you think! You may tell me what you think in the review section, even if you absolutely hate the band. I won't mind, honest!  
**

**I know that her Codename is Psyche, but her hero name will be Psydoll. Psyche seems like such a boring superhero name, but an appropriate codename, so just roll with it. Oh, and the university is made up, just in case people try and search it.  
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**An Avenger will be appearing soon, don't worry! I just needed to lay out the plot, and Dahlia's abilities etc.  
**

**Reganmacneil  
**

**P.S New question, answer in the review section if you feel like trying-what is the name Psydoll referring to? It could be anything, a song, a band, an album, a line of fashion, a film...virtual hugs from Tony Stark if you get the right answer.****  
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	3. 100 Percent Fucked

**Readers, I thank you for sticking with this story for this long. Honestly, I love you guys. Anyway, here is the latest chapter. I've decided that, if this was an actual movie, the song playing during the end credits would be 'Suck it Up' by Ayria. I encourage people reading this to go and listen to the song (it is on youtube, I've checked), and if you like it, maybe check out some more of their songs. Don't feel like you have too like it, but if you do (or don't), tell me if you review, or just message me if you want more musical suggestions.****  
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**On with the story (Oh, and Avengers is not mine. Nor is Nick Fury and his awesome eyepatch).  
**

Chapter 2: 100% Fucked**  
**

After the initial shock of a random purple projectile crashing through her window, Dahlia slowly began to edge towards the crystal, which had stopped glowing. She paused before picking it up, realizing that her telepathic field was fully retracted. She quickly expanded it, making sure that nobody was heading towards her dorm. As she scanned the heads of the students below her now broken window, Dahlia realized that nobody had even noticed.

"Typical," she rolled her eyes, before breathing a sigh of relief."Ah, well, what they don't know won't hurt them..."

Dahlia knelt down, careful to avoid the broken glass on the floor. She wasn't going to enjoy explaining _that_ to Molly when she got back.

"Then again, weird purple crystals falling out of the sky..." Dahlia murmured to herself."By the laws of Sci-Fi movies somebody is bound to get eaten by aliens at some point in the near future."

She grimaced at this thought.

"What a way to go."

After her momentary distraction by thoughts of human eating aliens, Dahlia finally managed to pick up the crystal. She held it in her palm, and straightened, examining it with a critical eye. She suddenly cringed, tossing the object onto her bed.

"What the hell are you doing, Dreycourt?" She demanded of herself, quickly rubbing her hand on her dress."It's probably radioactive or something!"

She breathed in deeply, trying to collect her thoughts. She checked the hallway again for any sign of the return of Molly-the coast was clear. Expanding her bubble further, Dahlia found her in the library, still studying. As a wave of fatigue hit her, Dahlia retracted her field all the way, and leaned on her desk, shaking her head. Prolonged use of telepathy, particularly at such a large radius, tired her out no end.

A glow attracted her attention. The purple radioactive-whatever it was, was glowing brightly again. Almost like it was pissed at being tossed so unceremoniously aside. Dahlia approached it again, practically on tiptoes (which was an impressive feat, considering the large boots she was wearing), and gently picked it up with her forefinger and thumb.

On close inspection, Dahlia realized that it was just, well, a glowing purple crystal. No galaxy hidden inside it. No bomb enclosed in it, waiting to destroy New York. Just a purple crystal, like an amethyst. Like her Mum's necklace.

"Hold on," Dahlia peered more closely at the thing. She then gave a shriek of surprise, and chucked the crystal away again.

"That's my Mum's frackin' bloody necklace!" She near screamed. Realizing how loud she had just been, Dahlia extended her field again, cursing under her breath at her carelessness, at her Mother's apparently extra-terrestrial necklace, and at the universe in general for conspiring against her.

When nobody came rushing down the corridor with panicked and concerned thoughts for her wellbeing (if she had to be completely honest, Dahlia was beginning to feel slightly unloved at this point), she retracted the field and backed away from the all too familiar piece of amethyst now lying on her bed. She located her phone, and rapidly dialed the only person that could make sense of this all.

"Come on, Mum," Dahlia muttered, tapping her desk impatiently with her glossy black nails. When the call went to voicemail, she near threw the damn phone out of the window. It wasn't like she would even need to open it first...

"Godamnit!" Dahlia realized that the message was already recording."Crap. Ignore the first part, not important. Or that bit. Or the bit just now...urgh!" Dahlia took the phone away from her ear, taking a couple of seconds to collect her thoughts, before continuing her message,"Look, your necklace, or the bit on the chord, you know, the amethyst bit-anyway, it just kinda, err...crash landed into my, umm...dorm."

She took the phone away again, and shook her head, eyes wide.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, I sound like a complete nutjob," she moaned, before returning the phone to her ear.

"Anyhoo-" Dahlia grimaced."You know what, forget I just said that. Just call me back, yeah? As soon as you get this. Please. Love you. Peace out."

She ended the message abruptly, before smacking her palm forcefully onto her forehead.

"_Peace out_?" She shook her head."Why in the name of Iron Man...?"

Dahlia sat down on her bed, glancing sideways at the crystal, that had begun glowing once again. She bit her lip, before picking it up again, and twirling it between her fingers, frowning.

"No, no, no!" She exclaimed, slamming it down forcefully and scooting away from it, so that she was squashed up against the headboard."Wait for Mum, Dahlia, wait for Mum to call."

The psychic closed her eyes, and decided to try and locate Molly. On finding her not in the library, Dahlia experienced a moment of slight confusion. She jumped from head too head, trying to locate her friend without invading her privacy. Eventually, she picked up a stray thought that related to Molly, and finally located her. Dahlia could paint a mental image of a place by using the thoughts, feelings and senses of the people within her field, and it always came in useful when locating people, or just generally being nosy.

Dahlia was about to make her way towards Molly, when she felt two other, unfamiliar minds, close too Molly. She dipped into one of the minds carefully, concluding that they were talking to Molly. Her natural curiosity getting the better of her, she tuned into one of the men's (they were both men) auditory senses, and listened in on the conversation.

"-are a friend of Dahlia Dreycourt's, yes?" Dahlia heard the man she was, ahem, _commandeering_, for lack of a better word, speak. She immediately stiffened, and looked at the crystal. It couldn't be a coincidence. Extra-terrestrial amethyst crashes into her dorm, and now mysterious men were looking for her. Dahlia bit her lip, and prayed to the _universe_ in general, hoping that Molly wouldn't be stupid enough to give strategic information (O.K, not strategic as such) to strange men in the corridor.

"Err, yeah," Molly mumbled, clearly intimidated.

Dahlia groaned,"_Damn you_, universe."

"My associate and I need to speak with her, urgently," Dahlia felt her heart rate quicken. She took deep breaths, trying to calm herself before she did anything stupid like jump out of her broken window.

"Why?" Molly's voice was stronger now. The psychic let out a sigh of relief-Molly wasn't as stupid as she had thought a few moments ago."Wait, she's done something stupid, hasn't she? Like, drunk dialed the cops or something...again."

"I love your faith in me, Mason," Dahlia said waspishly, her bottom lip jutting out a little. Her annoyance quickly dissipated, leaving genuine fear as the non-commandeered man held up an FBI badge.

"Where is she, Miss Mason?" He asked, as Molly's eyes widened.

"NO!" Dahlia shouted defiantly, shaking her head. Something was definitely off. She hadn't done anything at all-anything-to piss off the FBI! None of her friends had died recently so they couldn't be looking for her because of that...she dipped deeper into the supposed FBI agent's mind.

_Get Psyche...under orders SHIELD...competent psychic-possible threat?...foreign object...bring back to headquarters..._

She pulled out of his mind sharply, now merely skimming the top of both men's minds. She had heard enough to realize that she was in deep trouble. Her Mother _hated_ SHIELD. Dahlia didn't know particularly why, what kind of things SHIELD dealt with, or what it even stood for, but all she knew was this; one day, her Mum had sat her down and said, "Dahlia, you need to promise me something, and don't argue, or ask any questions. If you ever find somebody from SHIELD is following you, or even in the same building, you do not communicate, you do not fight. You get the hell out of dodge, are we clear?"

There was nothing she could do but nod. She had been 13 at the time, and hadn't the faintest clue what her Mum was rambling about, or why she had sprung something so serious on her daughter so suddenly.

Now, she think she had some sort of idea. The arrival of the strange men from SHIELD, coupled with their knowledge of her psychic abilities, and the unwelcome crash-landing crystal made her guess that they were some sort of secret agency, that dealt with mutants and aliens. Probably ghosts and werewolves too. It wouldn't surprise her.

Dahlia focused on their minds, trying to pinpoint their position by attempting to blot out all of the other, far less important minds surrounding them. By the time the background thoughts faded too annoying, but bearable white noise, Dahlia was exhausted again. She struggled to maintain her field, and almost had a heart attack when she realized that the agent's minds were moving closer to her; it was easier to make out their passing thoughts.

"No," Dahlia protested again, quietly. Her brain began to form wild, and dangerous plans. She could knock them out and run...she could use her highly unreliable telekinesis too...

No. She would run.

The next question she had to ask herself was where too? The obvious answer was 'they are coming from the top of the corridor, you run_ away_ from the top of the corridor', but Dahlia had a sneaking suspicion that this would not be enough.

Sure enough, the agents split apart (Molly had given them directions, then left. Dahlia swore that they would have '_words' _when this was all over), coming to an unspoken-nope, it had been spoken, she just hadn't been paying attention-agreement to approach the psychic from both sides. She was about to be boxed in.

The wheels of her mind turned rapidly as they neared. She had about 2 minutes to get out of the way before they would both be near enough to spot her making an escape.

Suddenly getting one of her brilliant ideas (this, of course, implies that most of her ideas were brilliant. They often weren't, and usually ended in complete disaster. A classic example of this was the mystery shots on her 18th birthday...the headache lasted for two days straight), Dahlia quickly scanned the back of the dormitory block. There was a grand total of one person behind the block, reading. She smiled, but her small moment of victory was ruined by the nearing of the agents.

She had a place to exit _too_...now all she needed was a _way_ of exiting the building. Dahlia placed her palms on her temples, trying to halt the headache that was slowly forming-she really wasn't used to keeping constant tabs on 2 separate minds at once. She tried to determine whether there were any empty rooms overlooking the back of the block.

"No, no, no-_screw, you universe_!" Dahlia growled. Her eyes then lit up."Yes! I take it back! I fuckin' love you really!"

She headed towards the door, then froze. They were after a foreign object...she glanced back at the crystal, glowing a little, on her bed. Making a split second decision, she grabbed the little shoulder bag hanging from her desk chair, and stuffed the damned thing into it. Then, as an afterthought, the 'Steampunk!' book. She would hate to get bored when running from a secret government agency, after all.

A quick check on the agents-they were about 55 seconds away. She would have to move fast. Dahlia darted across the hall, trying to look natural as she entered the vacant room. Closing the door firmly behind her, Dahlia practically skipped over the clutter on the floor, almost falling flat on her face as she jumped a large pile of magazines near to the window. Steadying herself, and taking 1 small second to check the agents progress. 26 seconds away. This revelation spurred her to move even faster, jamming the window open, and steadying herself on the ledge, a sudden wave of dizzieness hitting her. She gnashed her teeth together, shaking her head. She couldn't afford to flake out, she needed her full concentration to do what she was about to do.

15 seconds left...

Dahlia climbed onto the ledge, gripping the sides of the window tightly. She spotted the one person out the back-a young blond guy, nose buried in a book. He wouldn't be looking up any time soon.

10 seconds...

She closed her eyes, and braced herself for what she was about to do. Dahlia could count the number of times that she had used her telekinesis in her life on one hand. She tried to avoid it whenever possible. It was highly unreliable, and also a little dangerous, for herself and others around her.

7 seconds...

Dahlia gulped, and tried to visualize a platform underneath the window. Dahlia's telekinesis worked a little like her telepathy-she had to visualize it it her head as some type of bubble, or shape. Using her hands helped to finalize, and increase the potency of her telekinesis. For example, if she wanted to levitate an object, she would visualize a bubble around the object, and then try and imagine the bubble levitating, with the book inside it. Of course, her power probably was not 'invisible telekinetic bubbles', but it was the only way that she could make it work.

When she could properly visualize the platform, Dahlia sat on the ledge, and, still with her eyes closed, slid off.

She half expected to feel her legs snap with the force of impacting after falling from such a great height, and to roll onto the ground, screaming in pain. When she didn't, her eyes flew open. She was a good way above ground level, and if the blond had looked up at that moment, he would have seen a 19 year old girl standing on thin air.

Dahlia quickly checked on the agents, trying to maintain the platform and her field at the same time. The agents were at either end of the corridor by now, and closing in on her room. Dahlia would have given an extremely smug whoop if she hadn't been suspended in midair, and being trailed by secret agents. Instead, she closed her eyes again, and focused on lowering the platform. She felt herself travel down, and down, painstakingly slowly, but getting nearer and nearer to freedom. She was now 7m above ground. 6. 5. 4...

_WHERE IS SHE!_

The sudden angry thought made her lose her concentration. With a scream, her telekinesis failed, and she fell...

**Kind of a cliffhanger, I guess. I hope people don't think that I've given Dahlia too many powers-she has three, or four, I haven't decided yet. The definite powers are telepathy, and telekinesis, and as Fury mentioned, manipulation. As you can see, telepathy is the only one she can use reliably enough to trust herself with. I've honestly tried not to make her too overpowered, as I hate OC stories when the OC is practically invincible, with 10 different powers or something. Dahlia is quite vulnerable, and I have made up for her range of abilities by having her not able to use them very well, hence her telekinesis completely failing near the end. I also hate stories where characters can just use their powers perfectly with no effort, so Dahlia's have flaws, such as her fatigue when she pushed her telepathy to much.**

**Anyway, an Avenger will be arriving in a couple of chapters time, I promise, and there will be plenty more Fury! I would be grateful for some feedback on Dahlia's powers and character (I also gave her some personality flaws too-I hate OC's that are perfect!). Did I make her too overpowered? Possibly even too underpowered? Let me know!****  
**

**Reganmacneil  
**

**P.S Kakashi Forever, you get lots of hugs! Yes, Psydoll are a cyberpunk band, but I love the name so much, and it seemed appropriate (Psychic, Psydoll, you get it now?). I personally love Psydoll, but they are a bit of an aqcuired taste at times, so if you listen and hate, I understand. Anyway, now I have a new question for you people...what is the name of the chapter inspired by? Hint:it is a song, and relates to the woman playing Dahlia ;) I'll leave you clever people to figure it out.  
**

**MikiMouze16, Don't worry, you get hugs as well, but from Captain America (he's feeling friendly.)****  
**


	4. Very Unwelcome Visitor

**Readers! Hello! Now, onwards with the chapter. More psychic antics from Dahlia, and a sinister visit...****  
**

**People, people. I do not own the Avengers, or the X-Men (they are mentioned). Though, it would be nice to...all of them are almost uncomfortably attractive ;) (The Avengers, though young Charles and Erik...)  
**

Chapter 3: Very Unwelcome Visitor

She felt her feet impact on the ground (she had closed her eyes), and her field retract in a rush. Luckily, her legs did not snap as she had imagined-she had only been a few meters above ground level-but it still hurt like hell. Dahlia lay on the ground for a second, catching her breath, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Oh god!" Dahlia looked up, and saw the oblivious blond looming over her, his expression worried."Are you O.K?"

"What do you think, genius?" Dahlia snapped, sitting up. She quickly checked the contents of her shoulder bag, and felt relieved as she saw that her phone and book were still intact. She had mixed feelings about the still in one piece crystal.

Dahlia looked up again. The guy still looked shocked. He looked up at the building, and down at her again. Then, his eyes widened.

"Oh, you-you didn't?" His expression was pitying, and Dahlia stiffened under it for some reason. She guessed that she didn't like feeling like she was somehow in need of pity.

"We're you trying to kill yourself?" The guy asked quietly. Dahlia's eyes widened in shock. She shook her head quickly, scrambling too her feet.

"No! No, no, of course not!" She stumbled backwards in her haste to get away from oblivious blond's sympathetic expression."I-I have to go!"

She turned and began to half run, half walk away from him, ignoring his shouting after her. She tried extending her field as she walked around to the front of campus, heading away from her university. She managed to get it about two meters in diameter, before it became too much for her, and she gave up, retracting her field fully and fighting the urge to scream at herself for being so useless.

Dahlia tried not to fall asleep on her feet as she headed out into the street. She needed a boost, to keep her from dropping her guard and getting locked up god knows where. Not being able to extend her field far enough made her feel vulnerable, and paranoid. The psychic quickly glanced over her shoulder and, after reassuring herself that no men in scary suits were after her at that moment, began to head towards Cammie's cafe. She needed the caffeine.

She finally reached the cafe, and took a deep breath, trying to appear much calmer than she felt. Dahlia then entered the little place, and sat down at the nearest table. She then thought better of it, and proceeded to sit at a the table furthest away from the glass windows. Finally safe, or at least, for a few seconds, Dahlia buried her face in her arms and tried to regain some form of control. As she strained with her field, Dahlia became aware of a presence looming over her. She looked up, and saw Perverted Server staring down at her, a creepy smile on his creepy face.

"Can I help you, Miss?" He asked politely. Dahlia was sure that there was a double meaning in his sentence, even without her telepathy. She debated whether to purchase some caffeine, and decided against it. She could feel herself regaining a little strength from her rest, and thought that it would be useful to save her money for something more serious. Perhaps a rifle.

She buried her head in arms again, and her strength gradually returned to her. Realizing that she probably looked suicidal or something, Dahlia quickly raised her head.

Perverted Server was sat opposite her, his creepy smile still present. Dahlia felt a sense of foreboding, and unconsciously leaned backwards, away from him.

"Do you...want something, Per-I mean, dude," Dahlia corrected herself without drawing to much attention to the fact that she had been about too cal him Perverted Server to his face. It was a major problem for her. She would accidentally use her stupid names for people in polite conversation. Her high school teacher hadn't liked it when she had referred to her as 'Lumps'. Though her fellow classmates had found it hilarious.

"I do," he replied, and Dahlia noticed that he sounded...odd. Different. Definitely more cunning. Before he had sounded like he would have attempted to pounce on her in broad daylight. Now, he sounded like the kind of person that would memorize her route home and jump her in a dark alleyway. She gripped her shoulder bag tightly against her thigh, and tensed herself, ready to run.

She bit her lip, and threw her field out, over the whole cafe.

_I MUST PROCURE THE FRACTURE! I MUST!_

The sheer obsessive fury in the thought made Dahlia's head burn. She gave a strangled scream, and bolted for the door. Perverted Server sighed, almost sadly, before standing up. He thrust his palm out in front of him, and then seemed to grab the air, pulling his fist back sharply. Dahlia was pulled backwards with it. She fell backwards with a crash, and grimaced in pain. Screams erupted around her, and the people in the little cafe ran for the doors, not bothering to try and help her.

"Bast-ards," Dahlia gasped, trying to get up and run towards the door at the same time. Perverted Server made his way towards her, overturning a table that was in his way without much effort. As he walked, a black mask and cloak formed around him, and his eyes turned a feverish, glowing blue.

Koruth grabbed Dahlia's shoulders and pushed her onto a table near one of the windows, holding her down whilst he inspected her neck for signs of his beloved fracture.

"Where is it?" He spat at her. Dahlia shook her head, confused and bloody terrified.

"Where is what?" She asked, trying to keep eye contact with her attacker, whilst she figured out another of her genius plans. He growled at her, lifting her up, and slamming her down again. The table broke under the strain of being hit multiple times with a Dahlia Dreycourt, causing Koruth to land on top of her, giving him even more of an advantage. He moved his hands to her neck, and proceeded to choke her.

"The fracture, you slut!" He screamed at her. Dahlia felt her mind go fuzzy at the edges. He was wearing gloves, so she couldn't even use her touch telepathy against him. Not that she wanted to...his mind was painful to read. She looked up into his terrifying blue eyes and realized what she could do.

With a burst of effort, Dahlia extended her field until it covered just her and her attacker. She nearly screamed again from the fury in his mind, but instead gathered up as much oxygen as she could under the circumstance. She braced herself for the pain, and delved deep into his mind. When she was deep enough into his thoughts, and feeling like she was going to pass out any second, she looked him right in the eye.

"_Let me go,_" she ordered him. Her eyes glowed a purple color, and his eyes glowed in response. His grip loosened on her throat for a single second, enough time for Dahlia to take in a deep breath and attempt to get away. He blinked underneath the mask, clearly disorientated, before he roared with rage and grabbed her by the shoulders again, and flinging her across the cafe. Luckily for Dahlia, she only hit the very edge of a table, giving her a smallish bruise on her back. She barely had time to register the pain before Koruth had her by the neck again, lifting her up with ease.

"_Never_ try to do that to me again, Dahlia," he warned, in a deadly hiss, rather than roaring rage. Dahlia's hands clawed at his gloves. She was still afraid, but angered at being told what to do. The more oxygen she lost, the less she could think. She needed a way to get him to let her go.

"Where is the fracture, Dahlia?" Koruth asked, almost soothingly.

"How do you know my name?" She almost died inside as she said this. It was so cliché, but she felt that she needed to know. It scared her that he knew as much as he did, whoever or whatever he was.

"The time for questions is not now," Koruth scolded. His grip tightened, his eyes beginning to glow green. Dahlia, with her fuzzy brain, realized what he was about to do, and quickly tried to imagine a bubble around him, dropping her hands from her neck and using them to help construct her imaginary bubble.

"_Tell-_"

The bubble faded, and came back. Dahlia cursed in her head.

"_Me-_"

She concentrated harder, and began to be able to feel the bubble with her hands.

_"Where-_"

Dahlia pushed at the imaginary telekinetic bubble with all of her strength. Koruth shot back...about 3 meters. He looked down a Dahlia, who had fallen too the ground, her shoulder bag spilling its contents all over the floor. Then the malevolent alien shook his head sadly.

"That was quite embarrassing, my dear," he told her solemnly. Dahlia glared up at him, not taking the slight against her telekinetic abilities very well. She hated being criticized, especially by strange and scary men with glowing blue eyes. Not that she had much experience with that sort of thing, but it still made her pissed.

"Your _face_ is embarrassing," she shot back, grimacing as she became aware of all of the bruises that she had accumulated. She _had_ meant for him to fly away a little further (like, across the street further), but recognized that not everybody could be like the X-Men (she had never been approached by anyone asking her to attend Xavier's Institute, but she had heard of it. She was glad that nobody had, actually. She had tried very hard to keep her mutation secret when she was younger, especially from her friends and Mother).

"Pathetic insults?" Koruth began to walk slowly, and threateningly, towards her."Like Mother, like daughter, I suppose."

He suddenly froze as Dahlia's head shot up at the mention of her Mother.

"What was that about my Mother?" She demanded. When Koruth did not answer, she slammed the ground with her fist."HEY! I'm talkin' to you, bitch!"

"The fracture," Koruth murmured. He suddenly lunged forward, as Dahlia looked at the debris that had spilled from her shoulder bag-her book, her wallet and the, now pulsing brightly, purple amethyst. She quickly ascertained that this was obviously the fracture thing that he was talking about, and came to the rather abrupt conclusion that it was probably some sort of doomsday device (not that she was far off, but that comes later). Whatever it was, her attacker was closing in on it fast, and she had seen enough movies to know that the bad guy getting what he wanted was a bad thing.

"That's _mine_!" She screamed, and threw out her hand. As she did this, Dahlia visualized a huge bubble smashing into Koruth, knocking him off of his feet.

Instead of knocking him just off of his feet, her powerful and sudden attack caused him to smash into and through the front window of Cammie's. Dahlia lay, stunned, on the floor, before she realized that she had a chance to escape, and scrambled to her feet, grabbing up her fallen belongings, stuffing them as deep as they would go into her bag. As she ran to the door, however, two huge lizard...things blocked her way. They both grabbed for her at the same time.

Dahlia wasn't an expert on lizard anatomy, so she wasn't certain whether her swift kick into one of the lizard's-ahem-trouser part would do anything. When the lizard crumpled to the ground in pain, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her celebration was short lived, however, as the other lizard grabbed her arm and pinned her too his awful, scaly chest. She struggled as she saw Koruth beginning to get up, and felt the lizard attempting to grab her bag and rip it off of the strap.

"Why do you hate me, universe?" She hissed, as she stomped on the lizard's foot. Any normal human being stamped on by Dahlia Dreycourt, especially in her new rocks (huge fucking boots), would have been screaming, but the lizard guy, though he snarled and hissed at the same time (later on, Dahlia christened this sound 'sniss'), did not loosen his grip on her.

Koruth was almost fully upright now, though Dahlia saw dark red blood dripping too the ground. At least she had hurt him, which would give her a little advantage. At least she wasn't bleeding, only bruised and slightly light headed from the excess choking that she had endured.

Dahlia heard the gunshot, but it didn't really register in her mind until the lizard restraining her fell to the ground, a bullet in his head. She stared down at the corpse, trying to process what had just happened, and consequentially jumped about 50 meters (O.K, about 30 centimeters) in the air when the next gunshot rang out. She whipped around as the other, balls-impaired lizard also fell to the ground, dead. The strange men were there, guns out, shooting at her attackers.

Koruth threw himself to the ground and disappeared in a flash of blue, leaving Dahlia, 2 SHIELD agents, 2 dead lizard people and several screaming citizens behind him.

**Ohhh, the SHIELD agents have found Dahlia! And she gets to meet her archenemy for the first time-hooray for her! Anyway, chapter after next will introduce the Avenger, so keep with the story please.**

**I use Mum instead Mom because I'm English. Sorry if it offends anyone (as Dahlia is supposed to be American), but it's just the way I do things.  
**

**Anyway, the answer to the last chapter's question is the song '100%', by Angelspit, the band that Amelia Arsenic is part of. Some of the lyrics are '100% fucked'! It's one of my favourite songs :)  
**

**Reganmacneil  
**

**P.S You should google New Rocks to see what they look like, just to be able to understand the pain that they could cause you if it was you that Dahlia was stamping on. And the question for the next chapter...will Dahlia go quietly? Hmmmm...review, and tell me what you think!  
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	5. Damned Suits

**Right! This is the chapter where our Avenger is introduced (O.K, mentioned), and where Dahlia with either come quietly, or very, very loudly...****  
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**I do not own the Avengers. I cry at night.  
**

Chapter 4: Damned Suits

Dahlia froze as the two agents neared her, guns still out. Though they were not trained on her at that point in time, Dahlia knew that they would be if she put the smallest toe out of line. She was glad that her attacker had vanished, mainly because it meant that he wasn't strangling her anymore, but also because with him gone, she was able to extend her telepathic field without getting thought burn (Dahlia was pretty sure that this wasn't a real medical diagnosis, but later she did do some research. As it turned out, it wasn't).

"Miss Dreycourt, you need to come with us," one of them said, deadly serious. Dahlia's eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms.

"What if I say no?" She challenged them. The agents gave each other a look, before they pointed their guns at her. Dahlia gave a small shriek, and held her hands up.

"Alright, I'll come!" She knew that there was no way that she would be able to block the bullets. She could just about throw somebody through a window with her telekinesis, but bullets? No way. The agents lowered their guns in sync, looking like something straight out of a secret agent movie.

"This way," the agent that she had commandeered back at the University said. Dahlia dipped into his thoughts, and ascertained that his name was Agent Henry Field. Then, because she was nosy, she investigated the identity of his partner, who turned out to be name Agent Gregory Burnwell. Agent's Field and Burnwell. They sounded formidable.

Dahlia had to practically jog to keep up with the SHIELD agents, as they were striding purposefully down the street to a slick, official looking car. Before she could climb inside, Agent Burnwell put his hand on her shoulder.

"What?" Dahlia looked up at him, one foot in the car, one foot out.

"We are aware of your capabilities, Miss Dreycourt, and as a precaution we have to ask that you where this," he slipped a gag out of his pocket. Dahlia looked at the gag, then at him. Her face went red, and she slammed the car door, folding her arms and glaring at both of the agents.

"I am not wearing a fuckin' gag like some sort of criminal!" She protested. Agent Field's hand went to his gun in an instant, and Dahlia found herself in mortal peril once again. She sighed, holding her hands up again.

"It wasn't a request, Miss Dreycourt," Burnwell continued. Dahlia's eyes narrowed, and just for a second she contemplated trying to use her manipulation mojo on them, but decided that it would be a very bad idea. She didn't want to piss off 2 secret agents who had guns.

"Fine," she grabbed the gag."But just so you know, I am not happy about it!"

Dahlia pointed her finger at them both in a severe way, before getting into the car in the most moody way she could.

The moment they were moving, Dahlia felt her heart almost explode with panic. She needed to get away from them as fast as possible, but how? She couldn't use her manipulation skills (she needed to be able to speak, look them straight in the eye _and_ they had to be within her telepathic field), and using telekinesis could result in killing herself if the car crashed badly enough. Her mind whirred as she fought to formulate a plan. Then, it all seemed to snap into place. Dahlia fought the urge to grin triumphantly, instead glancing out of the heavily tinted window. She knew this area of the city fairly well-they were coming up to the 'Dish and Spoon' restaurant, which she knew for a fact had a nice, convenient windows at the back of the toilet cubicles, leading out to the back of the place.

Perfect.

Now, to execute her perfect, fool-proof plan. Well, she hoped it was fool-proof, anyway.

"Hey!" Dahlia yelled, her voice muffled by the gag. When the agents ignored her, she kicked the back of Agent Field's seat."HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

His head whipped around, and she presumed that he was glaring at her from underneath his dark shades.

"Gonna remove this fuckin' gag?" Dahlia demanded, though it came out as 'unna oov is fugg-an ag?'. The agent seemed to cotton on, and reached back, pulling the gag down. She inhaled sharply, fresh, un-musty air filling her lungs.

"Thanks," she snapped.

"What do you want?" Agent Field demanded.

"We need to get to a restroom," she said. She saw Burnwell smirk in the rear view mirror.

"Hold it," he replied. Dahlia bit her lip, looking embarrassed.

"It's kinda a-ah-lady problem," she admitted. For a moment, she heard the both their thoughts turn to mush and tried not to laugh. Super secret agents, and things like 'lady problems' still panicked them.

"Right," Burnwell said, after swallowing."Where do you suggest you sort out your, uh, problems?"

"This restaurant coming up," Dahlia pointed."Dish and Spoon. Has a restroom."

The car was pulled over abruptly. Agent Field turned around again, his expression serious.

"Right, here is what's going to happen," he informed her."You can go sort this out, but you can't go alone."

"What!" Dahlia panicked. She hadn't counted on them having the guts to accompany her to the frickin' toilet."No!"

"Then deal," she glared at Agent Burnwell, who looked a little smug.

She really hated him.

"Don't know what you think is so funny," she snapped."I choose you to come with me, bitch."

His expression faltered, and she gave him a little victory smirk, before stepping out of the car, the agent following her. She dipped into his thoughts, and saw that he really did fully intend to stand outside the cubicle, regardless what people would think.

"Damn," she muttered. Both of them slipped inconspicuously through the tables and chairs towards the restrooms. Dahlia entered, the agent not far behind her. It was a tiny one, with room for two cubicles, and one sink. Dahlia turned to Burnwell, hands on her hips, huffing.

"I suppose you're gonna stand outside like a huge pervert, right?" She demanded hotly. The slightest hint of red appeared on the agent's cheek, but he just shrugged.

"Protocol, Miss Dreycourt," he said."Can't have you trying to get away."

"God forbid," Dahlia grumbled, before slamming the door of her chosen cubicle. She sat down on the seat of the toilet, trying to calm herself down a bit. Craning her neck, she could see the small window, open a little, easily accessible-but Dahlia could tell that Burnwell was avidly watching the door of the cubicle for any sign of suspicious activity. She swore under her breath, and tried to formulate a plan in her head. She needed to get him out of the restroom, so that she could escape through the window-but how?

The answer was simple-manipulation. But he was wearing those stupid, secret agent shades, and she needed to have eye contact with him. She would have to get the shades off of him, and then order him to leave the room before he looked away. Easy. Not.

Dahlia wrenched the cubicle door open with more force than necessary, and saw Burnwell's hand twitch towards his gun. She tried forget the fact that he was armed, and made her way over to the sink quickly. He turned, watching her every move like some sort of hawk in black. She desperately tried to think of a way to get eye contact, then realized that, technically, if she were able to look his reflection in the eye, it would count as eye contact. She hoped so, anyway.

"Hey, uh, agent?" Dahlia asked, biting her lip.

"Yes?" Burnwell asked, frowning. She gestured wildly to the tap.

"Err, the tap's a little, err, tight," she said.

Burnwell shrugged,"Try the other one."

Dahlia scowled a little. Clearly, her plan to catch his eye was not going to work. She needed to try a different tact, one which she was really not comfortable about trying. Dahlia sighed, washing her hands and quickly wiping them nervously on her dress. She then took a deep breath, and turned around, flashing the agent the most charming smile she could muster.

"You know, I've always found men in dark shades attractive," Dahlia informed him. Burnwell cleared his throat, and nodded once.

"That's...interesting," he said. Dahlia rolled her eyes.

"Jesus christ," she muttered."Are you all this asexual?"

"I don't understand the..."

"'Cause, you know, it would be a real shame," Dahlia said quickly, giving herself a mental high five for smoothing the situation over (for the time being, anyway).

"Miss Dreycourt, are you _quite_ finished embarrassing yourself?" Burnwell asked, eyebrow raised. Dahlia's eyes narrowed at this, but she nodded.

"O.K, fine," she held up her hands in surrender, before walking over to the door. Burnwell moved to leave as well. Dahlia saw her chance, and, moving surprisingly fast for somebody who _really_ didn't want to do what she was planning on doing, grabbed him by his impeccably straight and businesslike tie. She then proceeded to pull his face down and kiss him as hard as she could, grimacing a little. Oh, god, she really did not want to be doing this.

Burnwell recovered from the shock of being suddenly, well, harassed in such a manner, in quite a short time. However, Dahlia had managed, during the kiss, to sneakily grab hold of his shades. As he straightened quickly, the dark glasses that had been blocking Dahlia's dangerous talent came off. Before he could properly react, she had looked directly into his now unobstructed eyes.

"_You are going to walk out of this room,_" her eyes glowed brightly."_And not stop until you reach the outside of this restaurant._"

The agent immediately turned, and exited. Dahlia doubled over almost instantly. She grabbed her head and moaned. She was over stretching herself, and at the rate she was going, she wouldn't even be able to read the thoughts of a person five feet away without collapsing from exhaustion. She certainly wasn't going to be able to manipulate another person in the next forty eight hours at least.

_She needed to fucking rest..._

But she couldn't. She just couldn't, at least not until there was a considerable distance between her and any more S.H.I.E.L.D agents trying to kidnap her, anyway. Groaning, Dahlia hitched her shoulder bag more securely onto her shoulder, and headed into the cubicle opposite her. There was a small-ish window above the toilet, just about the right size for her to squeeze through. She smiled with relief, and set the toilet lid down, climbing onto it with little grace (her huge boots hadn't exactly been designed for toilet seat to window navigation navigation). She stumbled, and swore under her breath, grabbing the window ledge for support.

Risking a small peak at Burnwell and Field's positions, Dahlia saw that Burnwell was almost out of the restaurant, his mind thankfully still dominated by her command. As quickly as she could, which was, admittedly, not very fast, the psychic scrambled through the window. She landed with a painful and ungraceful thump on the ground below. Dahlia lay there for a few seconds, breathing heavily, before pushing herself up off the floor.

She glanced into her bag, and saw that the source of all of her problems, that damned crystal, was still glowing a bright purple. Not certain whether she was relieved or annoyed about this fact, Dahlia dropped the flap back into place and half ran, half lurched away from the agents, and anything to do with S.H.I.E.L.D.

"You _lost _her?" Fury asked in disbelief. Agent Field, on the other end of the phone, cleared his throat, obviously embarrassed.

"Agent Burnwell accompanied her into the, err, ladies room," Field informed him."And came back out about five minutes later, under some form of hypnosis. He's still a little disorientated."

"Put him on the line," Fury ordered. There was scuffling sound as the phone was passed between the agents.

"Director Fury?"

"What happened?" Fury demanded.

"She-sir, I believe that she used some sort of cognitive manipulation skill on me," Burnwell said, sounding slightly drunk.

"Damn," Fury cursed."And what about this confrontation before you attempted to bring her in?"

"Unidentified life forms, sir, lizardine in form," Field was back on the line again."And there was another attempting to suffocate the target."

"Was he _after_ anything?"

"We couldn't see clearly, but I did catch sight of an unidentified, glowing object on the floor of the cafe before the target threw her assailant out of the window, my guess using her telekinetic skills," Field reeled off.

"Did you plant a tracking device on her at any point?" Fury's face was displeased as he questioned the agent.

"We did, Director," Field confirmed.

"Good," Fury put the phone down. He had heard enough. He opened communications to Maria Hill as soon as he did this.

"Hill, find out the code of the tracker issued to Field and Burnwell today and begin monitoring it at once," the Director ordered.

Fury paused, as if considering, before continuing.

"After you pinpoint the location of the device, call in agent Barton."

**Yes! Hawkeye will be the Avenger in this story! I decided he was the best Avenger for the job, because all the others appeared in movies before the Avengers, but Hawkeye didn't, so I thought it only fair :).**

**I toyed with the idea of it being Iron Man, but I have plans for Iron Man-Psydoll interaction in the Avengers that kinda relies on the fact that they have never met. So anyway, until next time! **

**Reganmacneil**

**P.S Discussions on pairings in the Avengers next chapter!**


	6. Fraternising With The Enemy

**Ahaha! Hawkeye abound :)**

**I do not own Hawkeye, or the Avengers. I do, however, own the supremely evil Koruth, and Dahlia.**

Chapter 5: Fraternising With the Enemy

"MARUS!" Koruth screamed in fury as he materialized in the middle of the Meloran grand hall. Marus, an elderly man fearfully clutching a large book to his chest, trembled at the anger in the man's voice. Koruth wheeled around to face the poor man, who was trying to dissolve into the pillar behind him. The few other Melorans still present in the hall looked on in terror as Koruth marched over to him and grabbed him roughly by the robes, slamming his aged body against the solid pillar. Marus cried out in pain, still clutching the thick tome to his chest protectively.

"YOU TOLD ME SHE WAS HARMLESS, OLD MAN!" Koruth raged. Behind him, a blond woman suddenly ran towards them, fists raised above her head.

"YOU SHALL NOT HARM THE BOOK KEEPER!" She yelled feverishly. A couple of lizard men immediately subdued her, dealing heavy blows to her head, face, abdomen, everywhere. Eventually, she was still, a bloody pulp on the ground.

Koruth, in his anger, did not even turn around. His eyes stayed fixed on the quaking old man.

"You said she was harmless," Koruth repeated, his voice now more calm, but somehow all the more terrifying.

"She-she is," Marus stammered. Koruth gave a humorless bark of laughter, and dropped him. He then exposed his cut, bleeding arm and leg to the old man, some pieces of glass stil embedded in them.

"But, I don't understand..." Marus's eyes widened."All of the information suggests that she is-"

"Well, the information is wrong!" Koruth pulled the large book from Marus's arms, and threw it across the floor. He gestured wildly at it."You're information is _useless_!"

"The book holds the names and attributes of generations of Melorans!" Marus protested, suddenly braver, perhaps due to the mistreatment of his precious book."It is never _wrong_."

"Tell me what it says about her then," Koruth said dangerously, extending a gloved hand towards the book."Then I shall judge whether your precious book is worth keeping or not."

Marus walked slowly, picking up the book with utmost reverence. He opened the book, flicking through until he apparently reached his intended target.

"Dahlia, daughter of Haela, the Keeper of the fracture," Koruth growled at the mention of Haela."A half blood, one of the first of her kind. Born with the common Meloran ability of telepathy."

Marus closed the book, looking at Koruth defiantly.

"I told you she was harmless," Marus said."And I spoke true. The ability of telepathy is common amongst Melorans-"

"I _know_," Koruth interrupted."I was _born_ on this god forsaken rock."

"Of course," Marus looked displeased at being reminded of this fact."And her particular brand of standard telepathy is hardly deadly. More a slight advantage in combat."

Koruth's fists clenched,"Then explain to me how she was able to throw me through a window like I was _some_ _pathetic human_?"

"Are-are you saying that she possesses the ability of telekinesis?" Marus's eyes were wide again, in disbelief.

"_Or_," Koruth advanced on the man."How she was able to violate my mind-_MY MIND_-and force me to go against my will if her only ability is _standard telepathy_?"

"She-the book says that-"

"_Your-book-is-wrong_!"

Koruth tore the book from Marus's hands, and threw it to the ground once again. He then took one of the torches from the brackets around the hall, and threw it down onto the book.

"There will be no more _books_, no more _high council_, no more _Keepers_!" Koruth shouted, as the flames reduced the book to ashes behind him."There will only be the search for the fracture!"

He stared up at the dormant, yet impressive silver rings.

"And the chaos that shall follow."

Dahlia was regretting everything in her life. She was just having one of those moments. You know, when you remember everything stupid and bad you have done in your life and go 'oh god, why'. Dahlia was currently regretting a lot of things, from the time that she hacked into her high school computer network (from a young age, computer hacking had been a particular talent of hers, her computer programming course at Andrew Forger improving her skills even further), to her various drunken exploits (in particular a rendition of Toni Basil's Hey Mickey that ended up on youtube).

In general, Dahlia was just _very_ pissed.

I mean, you couldn't blame her. She had some insane, alien guy after her, along with lizard men working for said alien guy, and probably also had some secret government organisation tracking her as well. Normally, she would call her Mum for advice about something like this, but as technically this was all her Mother's fault, she wasn't so keen on this idea. On top of everything, she still didn't know _why_ her Mother's pendant was currently residing in her bag, glowing eerily, attracting all sorts of trouble.

"Screw it," Dahlia muttered, getting out her phone. She wanted answers! She dialled her Mum's mobile again, and leant against the wall of a nearby building, waiting for her to pick up.

Voicemail.

"DAMN!" Dahlia shouted. A couple of passers by stared at her in alarm. She glared at them in response, and dumped her phone back in her bag. She was just about to go on her way, when her phone rang.

Dahlia quickly grabbed it, and took in the caller I.D. She smiled, and answered it.

"Mum, finally!" Her tone became harsh very quickly."What the hell is going on? One minute I'm in my dorm, minding my own business, then bang, there's your fuckin' pendant smashing through my window, and now I'm on the run from secret agents and aliens and-"

"My, you talk a lot, don't you Dahlia?"

Dahlia's eyes widened as she took in Koruth's snide voice.

"How-how did you get this phone?" She asked, half not wanting to know the answer.

"Simple," Koruth said."I've got your Mother."

"Mum!" Dahlia shouted, hoping that she could hear her. She began walking up the street, to agitated to stay still."Mum! Can you hear me? I'm gonna get you, I-"

"She can't hear you, save your breath," Koruth interrupted."And don't ask me 'what have you done with her', because I shall just not bother to answer such a dull and boring question."

"So, what, are you gonna tell me where she is for free then?" Dahlia tried. Koruth laughed softly.

"Oh, no, that would be far too easy," Koruth said."No, I want you to meet me. At...how about you choose? I'm feeling charitable, despite the fact that you threw me through a window."

"If you're expecting an apology, don't bother," Dahlia informed him."And I'm not exactly gonna meet my worst enemy in a dark alleyway."

"Then a public place," Koruth said."Hurry up, though, this is a limited time offer."

"Fine, the Kensington library," she paused."You know where that is, right?"

"I am _not_ an idiot, Dahlia," Koruth's voice darkened."And you would do well to remember it."

"Sure," Dahlia snorted, hanging up. It took a couple of seconds before what she was about to do fully hit her. Her eyes widened, and she began to slightly hyperventilate. She was going to meet an evil villain in her favourite library, an evil villain who wanted her dead, and had her mother prisoner or worse. With shaking hands, she went to place her phone back into her bag. It slipped lout of her unsteady grip, and plummeted towards the pavement.

"Shit!" Dahlia made a grab for it, but a hand suddenly came out of nowhere and caught it for her. She looked at her phone's saviour, and saw a tall, well built man in a long black coat clutching her phone.

"Better be more careful in the future," the man said. Dahlia stared at him for a second or two, before nodding, ad taking the phone back.

"Thanks," she said. He just smiled and nodded. She walked away quickly, shoving her phone safely into her bag as she went. Dahlia fought the urge to see what the man was thinking, as she normally would when she had any contact with a stranger. She guessed that she would need all of her strength for the upcoming confrontation.

As Dahlia walked towards the library, the man that had saved her phone set off after her, his face a mask of seriousness.

"Breath, Dreycourt, just breath," she muttered to herself as she walked into the library. It was fairly empty, as it was a Monday.

She was hating Mondays more and more by the second.

Dahlia walked through the endless rows of books, tensing every time she saw someone, wondering if they were Koruth or not. She didn't dare risk a peak into their minds-for all she knew, he would be able to sense her in his head, and get really pissed.

Suddenly, a tall, blond man smiled at her nastily. Dahlia knew instantly who he was. Her eyes narrowed, and she readied herself, already visualizing a large bubble, ready to push him back again. Somehow, the bubble seemed less adequate and strong than her previous effort.

"Dahlia, nice to see you," he held out his hand, palm up."The fracture, please. I'm only going to ask once."

"Where's my Mother?" Dahlia retorted. In her annoyance and worry, she lost her concentration, and her little 'bubble' disappeared. Silently cursing, she attempted to visualize another, but it was harder, and without her hands in front of her to help she was doing a very poor job of it.

"Fracture," Koruth repeated.

"O.K, I've seen enough movies to know your negotiations methods are _crap_," Dahlia said. Koruth's eyes glowed dangerously, and his disguise shifted for a second.

"Really?" He asked."Let us do a quick check here. There's me, with knowledge to the whereabouts of your Mother, an army at my command, and years of practice with my powers."

Koruth walked forward. Dahlia walked backwards, her hand slipping into her bag and gripping the crystal tightly. It was warm in her palm.

"And then there's you," Koruth's tone was mocking."A little, frightened hybrid, with faulty powers, no friends, and a Mother that cared more about a crystal than her own daughter."

"That's not true," Dahlia snapped, her grip on the crystal tightening."If you think I'm gonna fall for the whole 'your Mother doesn't love you' crap', you are sadly mistaken."

Her eyes were suddenly wide,"Hold on, what did you call me? A frightened...?"

"A frightened little hybrid," Koruth's disguised slipped again."But this is irrelevant! Give me the fracture, or-"

"It is _very_ relevant," Dahlia argued, glaring."Why the hell did you call me a hybrid? I'm a mutant!"

"Your attempts at stalling are _pathetic_!"

Koruth's eyes glowed a feverish blue, and his disguise disappeared completely. Dahlia's eyes glowed in response, though she didn't seem to notice this. Her expression was confused and angered, and as Koruth stepped forward once again, she raised both of her hands in front of her, fully intending to brake his body on the nearest book case if he got to close.

"Watch it," she warned."I threw through a glass window once, and I'll do it again if you take one more step towards me."

"I am perfectly capable of defending myself against an inexperienced half-breed, Dahlia," Koruth said, clearly not impressed by her display of defiance. Dahlia's expression twisted angrily as he stepped forward again. She pushed her hands out, trying to imagine a large bubble or wall smashing into Koruth's body. The product of her efforts was satisfying, yet not as impressive as she had hoped, thump as Koruth was knocked off of his feet.

Suddenly, she was free to run. Dahlia couldn't believe that she had been so stupid as to meet her archenemy of her own free will. Who did that, anyway? Well, apart from slightly suicidal idiots. Which, Dahlia realized, she was now one of.

She turned on her heel, but froze. Her Mum. She needed to know whether she was safe or not. And she also needed to sort out this hybrid business once and for all.

"Where is she?" Dahlia turned back to Koruth, who had stood up by now."And why do you think I'm a hybrid?"

"I'm not going to spoil your chance to do a little detective work, _hybrid_," Koruth chuckled darkly. Dahlia bristled at the word 'hybrid'. Now that he knew that the word confused and frustrated her, he seemed to be trying to slip it in at every opportunity. That, and phrases like 'half-breed' that made her sound like some sort of cross bred dog.

"Stop calling me that!" Dahlia screamed in frustration. In her anger, she lost control of her telekinesis, and the nearby book case teetered a little, but thankfully did not fall. A small shower of dust was blown into the air as it righted itself.

"_Just-tell-me-where-she-is_!" Dahlia ordered in one breath. Koruth cocked his head at her, apparently unfazed by her previous display of power.

"Alright, you've twisted my arm, deal," he pointed at her severely. Somehow, the action on it's own seemed like a threat."But afterwards..."

The evil alien clapped twice. Dahlia sensed somebody-no at least two people, come up behind her. Unable to resist, she quickly glanced into the mystery persons minds. They were unpleasant, cold, sharp, slimy minds. Almost as bad as Koruth's raging, fanatical mind, but not quite. They were the lizard people that she had met at the cafe, but as she glanced round at the three of them, they were disguised as humans.

"You _will_ give me my fracture," as Dahlia looked back at Koruth, he grabbed the front of her dress threateningly. She tensed, ready to bite, claw, kick, throw and explode people(O.K, so she had never been able to explode people before, ad probably never would be able to, but her mind wasn't exactly being rational by this point) in order to get out of her situation.

"_Where_?" Dahlia repeated, her eyes still glowing at the same intensity as his. Koruth sighed, letting go of her dress, and stepping back. Two more 'people' appeared behind him, as his disguise slipped back into place finally.

"She is-what is the human saying?" He asked, mock thoughtful."Ah, yes! She is, as you would say, six feet under."

There was silence. Dahlia was frozen to the spot. She shook her head, once, twice, her mouth opening and closing.

"No," she eventually said."Liar! You're evil, of_ course_ you're lying!"

"See for yourself!" Koruth snarled, and he almost smashed his palm into her forehead. Dahlia's eyes snapped closed, and she screamed as her head burned with the flurry of images flowing into her mind. Her Mother, with glowing blue eyes. Her Mother, being stabbed through the stomach. Being thrown against the hoops. Taunting this madman.

Being stabbed through the neck with no mercy.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Dahlia's scream of absolute, almost insane fury seemed to catch Koruth off guard. All thoughts of telekinesis were lost to Dahlia now. Without thinking, she launched herself at him, her hands closing around his neck for a grand total of two seconds, before she was thrown back into the waiting arms of Koruth's lizard people.

"NO, ENOUGH!" Koruth shouted. He waved the lizard men away, and lifted Dahlia's kicking and shouting form up with ease, holding her up against the book case."I WANT MY FRACTURE, YOU PATHETIC MONGREL! NOW!"

Dahlia was about to raise the hand that wasn't clutching the flap of her bag down to hit him, when an arrow came out of nowhere, and hit one of the lizard people in the head.

**Oh, he's officially here, and officially kickin' some lizard alien butt! This is a very long chapter, but now Dahlia has a better knowledge of what's going on, and Koruth has had a bit more story time. And yes, if you were confused before, the guy who saved her phone was Hawkeye :) and he followed her to the library. Next chapter will be Dahlia vs Hawkeye. Will she be able to get away again? Oohhhh...**

**Reganmacneil**

**P.S. PAIRINGS FOR THE AVENGERS ONE! Please vote in the review section.**

**Here are your choices:**

**Clint/Dahlia (most obvious, but maybe a bit to obvious. Ah, whatever, Clint needs some lovin' too)**

**Tony/Dahlia (bit dubious about this one, as there is the question of 'what about Pepper', but it's your opinion!)**

**Steve/Dahlia (Not sure, could work, I think perhaps he's a little to uptight for her, but I'm not too certain yet)**

**Bruce/Dahlia (Hmmm, really not sure how this one would work out, but I threw it in there anyway, as Banner is awesome)**

**Natasha/Dahlia (yes, femslash, but it would be interesting, if hard to write. Then again, plenty of innapropriate jokes from Tony...)**

**I haven't included Loki or Thor, because, well, Thor has Jane, and Dahlia, especially after Koruth, would most likely not fall for an evil alien villian trying to kill people. Sorry, Loki, though you are amazing, you are probably not the best choice :(**


	7. Assassins Suck Too

**Hawkeye Hawkeye Hawkeye. I just luvvim'!**

**That is all. And I don't own the Avengers. Getting tired of reiterating this now.**

Chapter 6: Assassins Suck Too

It took Dahlia a moment to process what had just happened. Then, as another arrow flew at Koruth's head, he was forced to drop Dahlia and grab it out of the air. She quickly summoned all of her strength, and pushed her hands up against him. Her blind rage hindered her attack once again, however, and he was able to keep his footing. Dahlia was tempted to jump at him again, but her survival instincts kicked in, as more arrows began flying. Not pausing to see who was firing them, and her mind too scrambled and tired to be able to use her telepathy in a successful manner, she instinctively ran _away_ from the direction they were coming from.

Koruth's soldiers didn't offer much resistance, too busy trying to pull arrows out of their bodies, or trying to get out of the way of them. Dahlia pushed her way through them easily, keeping low as to prevent getting an arrow lodged in her skull. By this time, the few people in the library had noticed the commotion, and there was a scattering of shouts and thumps as people tried to get as far away from it as possible. Dahlia tried to halt the growing panic inside her, guessing that S.H.I.E.L.D. would hear of the incident and investigate, and she didn't think she was fit to evade them again.

She heard Koruth's yelling as she she rounded the corner of the aisle, and try to speed up. This only caused her to trip over her own feet, and fall forward. Dahlia's hands shot out, ready to brace herself.

Instead of the impact from the floor she expected, Dahlia felt two hands snap around her wrists in a vice like grip, yanking her upwards. She looked up, into the face of the stranger from the street. His coat was discarded, and he was wearing some sort of vest. A quiver of arrows was visible on his back.

The moment his skin came into contact with hers, a flurry of his thoughts, even a couple of his memories, assaulted her head. Her touch telepathy was usually a lot more potent than her ranged telepathy, and this time was no exception. What she managed to glean, however, was certainly not to her liking. S.H.I.E.L.D. was prominent in his mind. And, perhaps worst of all, she was pretty sure he was an assassin of some kind, and would be much harder to escape from than Field and Burnwell.

Dahlia quite simply panicked, and did the first thing that came to her mind,"_Let go of m-_"

Clint Barton saw the young girl's eyes glow purple, and the moment she began to speak, he clamped his hand over her mouth, and, using his grip on her other wrist to his advantage, expertly twisted her around. He quickly pinned her to his chest using both of his arms, releasing her mouth in the process. As soon as he did, she began screaming at him.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! LET GO OF ME, YOU PIECE OF-"

"Be quiet, or I'll be forced to knock you out," he warned her. Dahlia clearly either did not care, or didn't believe that he would follow through with his threat, because she continued insulting him. She began attempting to fight him, stamping on his feet, and even trying to bite him. Clint grimaced, tightening his grip on her.

"I wasn't joking," his tone seemed to penetrate, because she stopped shouting and attempting to crush his toes. At least, Clint thought it had penetrated, until he felt her teeth sink into his arm. He gritted his teeth and growled in pain, his target taking advantage of his slightly loosened grip and charging forward.

Dahlia felt the guy-Clint Barton, she corrected, having ascertained his name from his thoughts-loosen his hold on her as she bit down on his arm as hard as she could. She barreled forward, but was sure that he would be on her almost instantly. She had seen what this man was capable of, and was surprised that she had managed to break his grip in the first place.

Sure enough, Dahlia felt his hand close around her wrist again, and she was yanked back, twisted around, and pinned to his chest for a second time. This time, she didn't bother struggling. She could deal with two fairly normal 'secret agent dude' types just about, but not a trained assassin. The fact that he _was _an assassin made her freak out all the more. She already knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to bring her in for some reason (though she was _pretty_ sure the reason was the extra-terrestrial crystal lying in her bag), but hadn't gotten the slightest indication at all that they wanted her dead. Then again, she was reassured somewhat by the fact that the assassin hadn't tried to kill her _yet_, so kept her fingers crossed for the best.

"You going to come quietly now?" The assassin in question asked, in a tone that raised Dahlia's already high rage level. She raised her heel, about to smash his toes as hard as she could to vent her frustration, but froze as she spotted a certain black robed figure round the corner. He pointed at Hawkeye, his eyes glowing a bright green.

"_Give me the hybrid, human_," Koruth ordered. Dahlia felt her captor tense as Koruth spoke, and hoped to god that he hadn't been stupid enough to keep eye contact with the alien as he gave his order. Clint seemed to know how to defend himself against _her_ attempted manipulation, which was a good sign. She would rather be in the hands of a man that could kill her, than the hands of the man who killed her Mother and would _definitely_ kill her, if he had the chance.

"Sorry, big guy, but this girl's coming with me," Clint said cockily, having closed his eyes and hummed the moment the black robed guy had started doing the 'glowing eyes thing', as he had nicknamed it (later on, Dahlia was informed of this nickname. She laughed for _quite_ a while). Privately, Clint wondered why the hell he had agreed to this. He wasn't generally called upon to bring people in. He was generally called upon to take people out.

Oh, yeah, he agreed because he was ordered to by Nick Fury. And _nobody_ disagrees with Nick Fury.

It was just very strange. He had been brought in out of the blue (luckily, he had been in the city at the time), told that a nineteen year old girl was in possession of a potentially dangerous,_ extra-terrestrial_ object, and that he had to bring her in. He was then informed that said girl had the ability to read minds, had thrown a suspected alien being through a window using her mind that very morning, and had then proceeded to escape from two other agents, sent to bring her in, by using mind control on one of them.

Needless to say, Dahlia Dreycourt was one the more interesting characters he had come across in his career.

And now he was being confronted by a suitably formidable looking guy in a black robe, who wanted to kindap her. Clint could only assume that this was the alien who had attacked Dahlia beforehand. He had been warned about him by Fury.

"Big words from the small man," Koruth scoffed. He raised his hands above his head for a brief second before letting them drop."Oh, please show me mercy, arrow man!"

"You want mercy?" Clint suddenly pushed Dahlia to the side, pulling out his retractable bow and arrow in one smooth movement. The arrow was loaded instantly, the bow pointed at Koruth.

"Mercy _this_."

The arrow flew at Koruth. He raised his hand to defend himself, and the arrow sunk into his gloved hand. Clint took advantage of Koruth's sudden handicap, and surged forward, landing a blow to the malevolent alien's head with his bow, and another to the gut. Koruth doubled over for a brief second, but as Clint went to smash the point of his bow into the back of the alien's neck, Koruth's hand shot up, grabbing the bow in a death grip, twisting Clint's arm to the side and landing a heavy kick into the assassin's chest.

Clint grimaced. The guy knew how to throw a kick, that was for sure. He stumbled back a little, but came back with his own kick to Koruth's shin. The alien gave an angry sound, and suddenly, out of nowhere, Clint saw a flash of silver. Processing what Koruth had just produced from his belt, Clint jumped back quickly. A blade whizzed past his abdomen, encrusted with blood, and deadly sharp. Crap.

"You are clearly outmatched here, human," Koruth said, almosty kindly, as he brandished his sword threateningly."Why don't you just forget this all happened, eh? Let me take the girl, you can go home, everybody is happy. You are talented, granted, probably better than I in combat, but you are weak in other respects. You do not possess my power."

"You, power?" Clint jerked his head at Dahlia, using this quick movement to quickly check on her. She looked almost completely out of it. Bruises were forming on her arms where he had been restraining her, there was a hand shaped bruise on her neck, and her eye makeup was running all over her face from her tears. On top of all of this, her nose was beginning to bleed, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open."I thought she was the one with the power?"

"Her!" Koruth laughed."The hybrid! She is nothing! She could never possibly match my-"

"Whatever," Clint muttered, easily grabbing the monologuing alien's wrist and disarming him of his sword whilst he was egotistically rambling.

Dahlia would have been able to fully appreciate the humor of the situation, and probably would have applauded Clint if she hadn't been about to pass out. She could feel the blood trickling out of her nose, and berated herself for using her abilities to much. She had put to much strain on herself, and now that she was practically lying down, it was all catching up to her. Everything. So, she was crying and, apparently, bleeding all over the place.

She was aware of a fight going on. She wasn't sure who was winning. She wasn't sure she cared.

Realizing as Koruth continued to fight, now using his telekinetic powers to his full advantage out of anger, that he was indeed outmatched, Clint drew one of his specialized, explosive arrows out of his quiver and shoved it into the book case. He executed a quick tumble, easily clearing the blast radius before detonation. Koruth was lost in a cloud of dust and bits of burnt paper.

Before Dahlia had any time to process what was happening, she was being yanked off the floor, onto her tired legs, and rushed away. When they were almost at the door, she near collapsed, moaning in pain and exhaustion. And nausea. Oh, shit, she was going to hurl...

"I-I'm gonna throw up..." Dahlia murmured as Clint hoisted her up onto her feet, now almost carrying her full weight as they burst out of the building.

"Try not to think about it," Clint replied, glancing over his shoulder. There was no sign of a raging Koruth storming after them at that moment, but Clint sped up anyway. He was told to bring this girl to Fury alive, and he was damn well going to.

"No, seriously, I would get out of the way now..." Dahlia tried to take deep breaths to calm her stomach, but it didn't really help.

"We're almost there," Clint assured her, spotting the non-descript, normal looking black car parked up ahead.

"Dude, I really think you should m-"

Dahlia retched, and pushed away from him just in time. She collapsed on all fours, emptying her stomach onto the pavement. People were looking very concerned by this point, taking in Clint's beaten up appearance, and Dahlia's bedraggled, equally abused look, muttering about drugs, drink and similar things.

"Come on, let's get you into the-" Clint was cut off as she punched him in the face. It was a weak punch, and he barely flinched, just frowned and rubbed his chin.

"Wh-what do you p-people _want_ with m-me?" Dahlia demanded, taking deep breaths as she spoke. She stood up, teetering a little. Clint moved to steady her, but she pushed him away.

"Answer the question, for_ fuck's sake_!" She screamed at him.

Clint took a step towards her, his hands raised in an unconfrontational manner,"Calm down."

"No, I will not _calm down_! My Mother is _dead_! I have some sort of evil alien overlord trying to kill me! And on top of all that, I have _you_ people trying to kidnap me! ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"I can't," Clint told her, truthfully. He was ordered not to divulge anything.

Dahlia laughed blackly,"_Bullshit_."

"It's not _bullshit_," Clint snapped. His expression softened a little as he saw fresh tears spring into her eyes. Contrary to some people's belief, he wasn't cold and heartless. He could sympathize with people. And he could tell that this girl, who he was certain wasn't evil nor malevolent, just scared, upset and confused, could do with some sympathy, or at least reassurance.

"Look, everything will be explained," he told her. Dahlia frowned, wary.

"Promise?" She asked doubtfully. Clint hesitated, before nodding.

"I'll do what I can, alright?" He said. It wasn't technically a lie. He _would_ try to get someone to explain the situation to her, he just probably wouldn't succeed."Now, will you please get in the car?"

"Alright," Dahlia slumped, finally defeated. She was terrified of S.H.I.E.L.D., but for some reason trusted Clint. She wasn't sure why.

She gave him a wavery smile,"I'm Dahlia, by the way."

Clint couldn't help but return it,"Clint. Clint Barton."

"Clint," she nodded."Nice."

"Thanks," he replied. Dahlia carefully took a step forward, and froze. Clint's hand flew to his bow, immediately on alert.

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Dahlia looked up at him, looking a little worried."Err, if I fainted, you'd catch me, right?"

"Yeah, sure, I guess..." Clint promised, not sure where she was going with this. Dahlia nodded, smiling.

"Oh good," she said, and collapsed.

**AWWWW YEAHHH! I hope you think he's in character, and liked the fight scene. What will happen during her first meeting with Fury? **

**I need more votes for pairings, thank you to the people who have already voted. If you haven't voted, please do so in the comments section. The options are Clint/Dahlia, Tony/Dahlia, Steve/Dahlia, Bruce/Dahlia, and Natasha/Dahlia. Thanks for reading!**

**Reganmacneil**


	8. Scary Furys and Smart Ass Assassins

**Right, I decided the pairing shall be Clint/Dahlia due to popular opinion :). Anyway, on with the story!**

**I do no own the Avengers. Maybe next time I should do the disclaimer in German just to shake things up a bit?**

Chapter 7: Scary Furys And Smart Ass Assassins

Dahlia was...floating. Her immediate reaction to this was to ask herself what the hell she drank the previous night. Her second reaction was to freak out as she remembered all that had transpired pre-floating.

A meteorite thing crashing into her room, that turned out to be her Mother's amethyst pendant, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents practically kidnapping her, being strangled by an evil alien overlord guy, lizard people, escaping through a window, evil alien dude calling her hybrid, then a wild arrow dude-Clint, she remembered-shooting the evil alien.

She recalled blacking out and throwing up. Dahlia also remembered making arrow dude-Clint-catch her. At least, she hoped he had. Hitting the floor would have meant a hairful of vomit, which nobody wants to happen to them, ever.

Dahlia couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she was forgetting. It was right on the edge of her thoughts, almost like her mind was trying to block it out. But she wanted to remember it! It was probably important, like how to save the world from lizard guys! O.K., so it most likely wasn't that, but it was definitely important. Dahlia couldn't tell whether it was in a bad way or a good way.

It suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. Worse than that, in fact._ Like an entire planet_ was more accurate.

Her Mother was dead. Her Mother. Dead and decaying, stabbed mercilessly through the neck by-by _him._

HE HAD TO DIE!

Dahlia's eyes flew open, and she shot up straight. Unfortunately, she seemed to be contained in some sort of medical pod-like structure. Her head smashed into the clear plastic, and she shouted angrily, dropping down again, clutching her forehead. She felt like her skull had just been smashed open.

Dahlia became aware that there were people looking at her through the plastic. One looked like a doctor, one had an eye patch (Dahlia was quickly uneasy of this guy), and one was Clint. She slammed her fist against the plastic, and glared at all three of them.

"Open this fucking pod...thing!" Dahlia demanded. As the eye patch dude nodded at the doctor to open the pod, Dahlia noticed simultaneously that she was wearing what looked like a white hospital gown, and that the back of her head was bruised. Her eyes narrowed at Clint as the plastic began to slide away.

"You didn't catch me!" She pointed a finger accusingly at him, finally able to sit up.

"I did my best," Clint insisted hastily."Your head hit the ground before the rest of you."

"Comforting," Dahlia said sourly. She abruptly remembered why she had shot up in the first place, and leapt off of the medical table, making a break for the door of the room. Clint swore, and set off after her, easily grabbing her around the waist, and pulling her back.

"No!" She screamed angrily."Let me go! I'LL KILL HIM! LET ME GO!"

"Miss Dreycourt, I'm going to have to ask you to either calm down or allow yourself to be sedated," Director Fury said seriously. Dahlia shot him a look of pure venom.

"Screw _that_!" She shouted at him, still fighting agent Barton's trained and strong hold on her. She eventually gave up as her head starting spinning, and she felt woozy. Dahlia moaned, and clutched her forehead again, lying limp in Clint's hold.

"Alright, I won't try escape anymore," she mumbled."You can put me down now, Legolas."

Clint frowned at this nickname, and looked to Fury for guidance. Fury, eyebrow raised at Dahlia's performance, nodded at him to put her down. Clint quite unceremoniously dumped her on the medical table, earning himself yet another glare.

"And they say chivalry is dead," Dahlia remarked acidly. She looked around at the people in the room, and took a deep breath. She decided that she felt rested enough to attempt to take a peak into their minds. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. _had_ sent an assassin after her, so Dahlia thought she was owed at least a little bit of clarity.

She expanded her field and...wait. No. She couldn't! Dahlia gave a shout, and nearly tumbled backwards off of the medical table in her shock.

"What the..." Clint began, and the girl's expression went from extreme shock to murderous rage. She seemed to guess that Fury was in charge, because she was looking straight at him as her fists clenched.

"_What-the-hell-have-you-done-to-me_!" She growled. He suddenly realized what her alarm had been about. Clint's eyes travelled up to stare at her head, where a metal band now rested. The girl-Dahlia-obviously hadn't noticed it yet.

Fury was unnaffected by her anger,"You telepathic abilities have been temporarily frozen, for obvious reasons."

"No! _No_, no! Not obvious reasons, dude, not obvious!" Dahlia shouted hysterically."Nothing about my day so far has been obvious! Who the _hell_ do you people think you are, sending bloody_ assassins_ after teenage girls! I mean, an assassin! WHAT THE FUCK!"

Dahlia took a deep breath, before realizing that said assassin was still very much in the room.

"No offence," she added quickly, shooting him an apologetic look.

"None taken," Clint replied, one eyebrow raised.

"Anyway, so to sum up; what the hell do you people want from me?" Dahlia demanded. Fury stared at her for a while, deliberating. Finally, he nodded.

"At approximately quarter to ten this morning, an object transmitting an abnormally powerful energy signature entered the Earth's atmosphere," Fury paused, looking meaningfully at her."The object did not stray from it's path as it fell to Earth. And it's path lead to Andrew Forger's University of Technology."

Dahlia's thoughts immediately turned to the crystal. So, it really was the cause of all of her problems. She abruptly wanted to smash it into tiny pieces.

"As it happened, one of the students there was under our surveillance," Fury continued."A girl with both a alien Mother and powerful psychic abilities. An alien Mother that-"

"My Mother isn't-" Dahlia faltered."_Wasn't_ an alien. She was _human_."

Fury ignored her,"An alien Mother that happened to be the guardian of an extremely dangerous object known as the Fracture."

"Hold on," Dahlia held up a hand, frowning."Did you just say Fracture?"

"Yes."

"That's the thing that bastard alien wanted!" Her eyes darkened."Are you saying that he killed my Mother to get some fucking doomsday device that I _don't even have_?"

Everybody in the room was suddenly giving her a disbelieving look. Dahlia began to feel very stupid.

"_What_?" She glared at them.

"Are you saying you don't know what the Fracture is?" Clint asked.

"No," she replied honestly. It suddenly it all-absolutely everything this time-came. The crystal. Oh god, how could she have forgotten that the alien had been trying to get into her bag? Her Mother was the supposed guardian of this Fracture thing, the crystal had been her Mother's. Even if she hadn't already known, but for some reason forgotten, it was so obvious anyway."Oh, yeah. The crystal. I knew that."

"We believe that Haela Dreycourt sent the Fracture to her only living descendant," Fury nodded towards her."You."

"_Me_?" Dahlia laughed, slightly hysterically."What...you think I'm some sort of alien guardian just because my guardian Mother sent me a doomsday weapon that looks like an amethyst?"

She paused, frowning.

"You know, there is absolutely no way to say that without sounding crazy," Dahlia glared at Clint as he chuckled.

"And I'm _not_ crazy, Legolas," she added.

"Are you ever gonna stop with the Legolas?" Clint questioned, his annoyance pretty obvious.

"Is Captain America alive?" Dahlia snorted. She noticed Clint, Fury and, well, everybody in the room exchange slightly amused glances.

She groaned,"Are you serious? He's actually alive?"

"Captain America's status is not important right now," Fury cut in."What_ is_ important is protecting the Fracture from being apprehended by the alien that assaulted you earlier today."

"Oh, yeah," Dahlia grumbled."Protect the_ Fracture_, not the _guardian_. She's _disposable_."

She huffed, rubbing the back of her head. Then, a sudden thought occured to her.

"Where_ is_ the Fracture?" She demanded. When nobody answered her, her voice rose."Tell me it's somewhere safe, being left alone. Please tell me that you're not doing something stupid like, I don't know, conducting experiments on the extremely dangerous doomsday weapon."

"Our scientists and associated personnel have been unable to touch the Fracture," Fury informed her. He walked over to a monitor at the foot of the pod, and turned it on. It showed a group of people in white lab coats, surrounding the crystal, that was now glowing very, very brightly. Because of this, the scientists were wearing glasses.

"After the Fracture was retrieved-"

"Stolen," Dahlia muttered mutinously. Fury once again went on as if she hadn't spoken, though his tone was a little harsher.

"-It began to misbehave," Dahlia frowned at his choice of words."The agent that retrieved it was severely injured."

"By injured, you mean..." Dahlia moved her hands, indicating that he should elaborate further.

"Half disintegrated," Clint cut in. Dahlia's eyes widened.

"Oh god," she stared at the glowing object on the monitor, wondering how on earth such a small thing could cause that much damage."How?"

The monitor switched, to different footage. A man was standing in the same room as the previous footage, holding the crystal. There were still scientists about, preparing an environment for the Fracture. Then, suddenly, there was a burst of purple energy from the Fracture, and Dahlia watched in horror and bits of the man seemed to just separate and disappear in a black mist.

"Our science personnel have determined that the blast literally separated his cells," Fury said solemnly as the footage switched back to the present.

"And, _what_? You want me to babysit this thing or something?" Dahlia demanded."Do it yourselves! You were the ones that sent agents and assassins after me to get it! _You_ deal with it!"

"Dahlia..." Clint began, as he saw her about to have another hysterical meltdown. She scrambled away from them, over to the other side of the medical pod.

"No, better yet!" She gestured wildly at Clint."Get _him_ to look after it! He has an awesome bow, with exploding arrows! _I_ don't have a bow!_ I_ don't have exploding arrows! All _I_ have are some crappy psychic powers that only work 50% of the time! I'm _not_ an assassin! I'm _not_ an alien hybrid!"

"Miss Dreycourt, calm down," Fury warned.

"I WILL _NOT_ CALM DOWN!"

"Dahlia," Clint said, walking around the pod towards her, his tone a lot more sympathetic than the Director's."Just listen to Director Fu-"

"I'M JUST A MUTANT WHO WANTS TO GO BACK TO UNIVERSITY!" Dahlia finally broke down completely, tears falling down her face. She unexpectedly flung herself forward, into Clint's arms, and buried her head into his chest, crying and crying. He froze, eyes wide, arms awkwardly by his sides. He looked a little terrified of the situation, to be honest. Crying people wasn't his specialty.

"Err..." Clint awkwardly wrapped his arms around her."Th-there there..."

"You're-" Dahlia sniffed."You're_ really_ bad at comforting people."

"Not really in the job description," he answered. She gave a shaky laugh, and Clint smiled a little. She was alright, he decided. For an alien (not that she apparently believed it, but he had read her file), anyway. She had a sense of humor, she wasn't insane (well, not completely), she wasn't evil, and wasn't half bad looking. O.K., that wasn't really fair. She was actually quite pretty, really. And interesting, too...Clint shook his head, and released her.

"What do you want me to do?" Dahlia asked Fury, wiping away her tears. She quickly held up a hand."And no, this is _not_ me excepting what you want me to do, this is me ready to decide if I _like_ what you want me to do."

"It's simple; we want you to pick it up," Fury gestured to the screen."Nobody has been able to touch the thing since the energy burst was emitted. It administers a smaller burst every time it senses somebody attempting to handle it, which leaves the person _without_ hands."

"Without...hands..." Dahlia swallowed."Huh."

She nodded, biting her lip.

"And you want to see if I'm able to keep my hands?" She asked.

"That's the idea," Fury confirmed. Dahlia nodded again, making a small sound in the back of her throat.

"Well..._that's_ not gonna happen," she said, before marching towards the door.

Director Fury sighed,"Agent Barton, please retrieve the psychic."

"Of course," Clint rushed after her."Dahlia! Wait!"

"No!" Dahlia turned, waving her hands in his face."I like my hands! I don't want to lose my hands!"

"The Earth could be in danger," Clint argued. Dahlia gave him a disbelieving look.

"Really? Out of all the lines you could come up with, you use_ that_?" She laughed."Look, the Earth is not in danger, alright. I doubt that ego alien-_not a word_-" she snapped as Clint raised an eyebrow at her nickname."Could break into a high security headquarters, even with his lizard dudes, steal the Fracture and live to tell the tale, so save it."

She began marching away.

"I read your file!"

Dahlia froze, and turned, frowning.

"You _read_ my _file_?" She gave him a disgusted look."What, are you a stalker now?"

"No, I had to," off Dahlia's raised eyebrow, he continued hastily."Mission debriefing. I was told read or get a nasty shock."

"O.K., so you read my file," Dahlia shrugged."So?"

"I read about your Mother," he said.

Dahlia's expression darkened,"Shut up."

"She wouldn't have walked away," Clint continued, ignoring Dahlia's quickly accelerating rage.

"Are you _deaf_?" Dahlia snarled, taking a step forward."I said _shut up_."

"She would have fought-"

"She_ did_!" Dahlia's fists were balled now."And where did it get her? I'll tell you! She's _dead_! She fought and she _died!_ That bastard alien murdered her because of that _fucking_ Fracture, and now you want me to _protect_ the damn thing? Well fuck off! I'm leaving!"

She turned again, but Clint grabbed her arm.

"Has it occurred to you that it would be better to blame the alien rather than the object?" Clint demanded. Dahlia looked up at him, her anger fading a little.

"I..." she chewed her lip."I did-I _do_."

"Then why give him the opportunity to take it?" Clint saw her jaw set, determined.

"You're right," Dahlia sighed, glaring at him."Next time, don't be. It's annoying."

"Why, are you planning on walking out on us again?" Clint asked, but not particularly seriously. Dahlia's eyes narrowed at him.

"Keep on being a smart ass and I just might," she flicked her hair over her shoulder, and walked back up the corridor, trying to retain her last shred of dignity.

"That's a shame!" Clint shouted after her.

Dahlia turned, frowning,"Why?"

"Well, I'm just so good at it!"

She just couldn't stop herself from laughing. An assassin with a sense of humor? Whatever next...

**Aww, Clint and Dahlia. The more I write, the more perfect the pairing is. Some funny bits in it, I hope Clint's in character, though there isn't that much to go with in the Avengers, and his small part in Thor (which I forgot about earlier...oops!).**

**Did you like the Captain America reference :), I though it was cute, though Dahlia was embarrassed a little. And the hug bit...poor, awkward Clint.**

**Anyway, enough gushing, bye for now! I'll try and update at least every two weeks, alright?**

**Reganmacneil**


	9. Dangerous Times

**Aha! On with the story! I'm really getting into it again after abandoning for about two months (sorry, guys). Got everything completely planned out, so hopefully no more writers block from here on in!**

**I-do-not-own-the-Avengers. Maybe in olde English? Let's see...I do not-eth own-eth the Avengers-eth. O.K, that was awful, but you get the gist.**

Chapter 8: Dangerous Times

"So," Dahlia folded her arms. Director Fury and everybody else but Clint had left. He was 'keeping an eye' on her, which Dahlia interpreted as 'been ordered to stalk' her. She had agreed to trying to pick up the crystal, but that was all so far. She wanted to know _exactly_ what she was getting into before, well, getting into it."Are there any clothes I can borrow around here?"

"You have clothes on, _right_ now," Clint countered. Dahlia rolled her eyes, looking down at her white gown.

"I meant something other than a hospital gown that makes me look like a loony," she said."You know, like a spare shirt and pants-well, anything, really. I just want to get _out_ of this thing."

"Your dress is over there," he pointed to a medical cupboard, where her rose and skull dress hung, along with her new rocks on the floor underneath. Dahlia gasped as something in her brained clicked that hadn't clicked beforehand, for some reason.

"_Who undressed me_?" She demanded. Clint, who hadn't been expecting that _particular _question, looked lost for a second or two.

"I have no idea," he replied honestly."Why, do you want to thank them?"

"Err, smart ass alert," Dahlia raised an eyebrow."Remember the deal?"

Clint snorted,"We didn't make a deal."

"You're-" Dahlia searched for the words."An asshole."

"And you're the one begging the asshole for clothes," Clint smirked at her."What does that make you?"

"_Really_ desperate for clothes."

Clint gestured at the dress again,"Then put that on."

Dahlia slid off the pod, and inspected the dress thoughtfully. Clint watched her, shaking his head. She was impossible. She argued a lot, for one thing. And when she wasn't arguing she was either glaring at him, making sarcastic and unhelpful comments or asking weird questions.

Then again, she had actually been civil to him a_ couple_ of times. Only a couple, though. And she was immediately frustrated afterwards.

Yeah, she was _impossible._

"Alright, I'll wear this for now," Dahlia said grudgingly."It's gotta be better than wearing this thing."

She studied the white gown in disgust, before turning to Clint.

"Get out," she said, pointing to the door.

"Why?" Clint asked, frowning. Dahlia gave him an impatient look, gesturing to the dress.

"I'm about to change?" She said."So get out. I'm not gonna escape, honest."

"I bet that's what you say to _all_ the assassins..." Clint found himself being assaulted by a dress and a pair of heavy boots as Dahlia forced him out the door.

"You are_ impossible_!" She shouted, slamming the door.

"So are you!" Clint shouted in response, stood right outside, his back to the door."But I don't point it out, do I?"

He could have sworn he heard her mutter 'touché', and chuckled. There was that sense of humor again.

After about five minutes there was knock on the door. He turned, and saw Dahlia staring at him through the glass.

"I'm all set," she pulled the door open, and stepped out into the corridor. Her face paled as she thought about what she was going to do."Oh god, I'm gonna have no hands..."

"Don't think about it that way," Clint advised, as they began to walk towards the lab. Dahlia gave him one of her 'excuse me' looks.

"And how exactly _should_ I think about it?" She demanded.

The assassin,"Maybe like 'if I can pick this up I can protect planet Earth'?"

Dahlia was stubbornly silent. Clint knew by now that stubborn silence meant that she knew he was right, but didn't want to admit it.

"Whatever," she muttered eventually. Dahlia lifted up her hands, studying them. They were an essential part of her lifestyle, her hands. She didn't want to lose them too some sort of alien disintegration cloud...thing.

They arrived at the lab way too quickly for Dahlia's liking. She took a deep, nervous breath.

"You ready for this?" Clint asked, his tone deadly serious. Dahlia looked up at him (he was quite a bit taller than her), and shook her head.

"Not in the slightest," she sighed. She turned to him,"If I die, kick that eye patch dude's butt for me."

"I don't think I'm authorized to do that kind of thing," Clint saw the glare she was giving him,"He's my boss, and the head of one of the largest, most powerful covert agencies in the world. So no."

"I figured you'd say that," Dahlia grumbled."Alright, let's get this over with."

Clint nodded, and began pressing buttons on the pad next to the door. Dahlia took another deep breath, before pushing open the heavy metal door.

There were a_ lot_ of people in the room.

There were assembled scientists (or what Dahlia assumed were scientists, judging from their white lab coats), what looked like a doctor, hovering almost nervously, waiting for somebody-her-to be injured. And, of course, Director Fury, his one remaining eye boring into her as she crossed the room towards the Fracture.

The Fracture was atop a cylinder, that had been lit from the inside so that the crystal was on a bright, white surface, very easy to study. On top of the cylinder, placed over the fracture, was a plastic (or glass, Dahlia couldn't decide which) dome, with four 'doors' cut into it for access.

"So, what do I do?" Dahlia asked, the question directed at everybody."Do I just grab it, or do I get special gloves or something?"

"Gloves wouldn't help against another high energy burst," one of the scientists piped up, helpfully."They would disintegrate."

"G-good to know," Dahlia swallowed. She reached towards the dome, before snatching her hands away immediately, shaking her head.

"So, just to clarify," she said quickly, obviously stalling."You want me to just grab it?"

"Yes," Fury answered, straight to the point.

Dahlia nodded,"Oh. I was just wondering."

She bit her lip, her hands awkwardly waving about the dome as she tried to steal herself to reach in and grab the damn thing. Clint watched her like a hawk (pun not intended), silently encouraging her to get it over with. He could see that the longer she deliberated, and the longer she stalled, the more nervous the psychic was becoming.

Her hands went towards the doors...she snatched them away again. Clint inwardly groaned. She was just making everything _worse_ for herself.

"Whenever you're ready, Miss Dreycourt," Dahlia jumped as the Director's voice broke the silence, his tone a little scornful-O.K, _very_ scornful. She glared at him, about to retort, when Clint managed to catch her eye. She saw him mouth something urgently, and she frowned in confusion as she tried to decipher it. She shook her head a little, showing that she didn't understand what the hell he was on about, and he had to fight the urge to face palm.

"_Just do it_!" Clint mouthed again. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand him, and in despair he pointed to the Fracture, and then mimed grabbing. Thankfully, he managed to do it inconspicuously enough that nobody noticed (or cared). Dahlia's eyes suddenly widened in recognition, and she nodded quickly.

"O.K," Dahlia said under her breath."O.K, O.K, O.K...come on, Dreycourt, you can do this."

She finally placed her hands in line with the doors, and slowly inched them into the dome. As she did this, her breathing rate increased dramatically, as did her heart rate, and she felt nausea attempting to claw its way up her throat. She tensed, waiting for something bad to happen...

Her fingers were now in the dome. She exhaled with relief as they didn't get blown off. Just a little further...

There was a small flash from the crystal, and Dahlia shrieked, whipping her hands out of the dome.

"I can't do this!" She said, panicking."I can't-I can't do-"

She turned around, about to walk out of the room. Clint looked at the Director, awaiting orders. The Director nodded, gesturing briefly at Dahlia. Clint nodded back, and found himself once again stopping Dahlia Dreycourt from leaving a room. His hand closed around her elbow, and he pulled her away from the door, turning her to face him.

"Just do it," he hissed."The more you drag it out, the more nervous you will be."

The assassin pushed her back towards the dome. Dahlia rubbed her arm, biting her lip as she evaluated the dome again.

"Miss Dreycourt, time may be of the essence," Fury said."We need you to speed this up."

"I-"

"Do it!" Clint said under his breath from behind her. Dahlia looked back at him for guidance. She was beginning to realize that he was the only one she could sort of rely on in this place, which was quite ironic, seeing as he had been the one to bring her there in the first place. He nodded once, firmly, and finally.

"O.K," Dahlia said again, her jaw set."Let's do this."

She practically shoved her hands through the doors, and grabbed the Fracture with both. Dahlia inhaled sharply, eyes closed, muscles tensed, waiting for her hands to be blasted into pieces.

When they weren't, she opened them, and stared through the dome at her very much intact hands. It took her moment to process what had happened. When it _did_ finally sink in, her face spread into a wide grin, and she burst out laughing.

"I did it!" She lifted her hands out, staring at the brightly pulsing Fracture."Ha! My hands, they're still here!"

For a moment she forgot that there were other people around, and practically jumped at Clint, still laughing like a maniac, and practically locked him in a stranglehold as she hugged him.

"Be smart ass more often, please," Dahlia said, more quietly."It's actually helpful sometimes."

Before Clint could open his mouth, or even respond to the hug, she unexpectedly pecked him on the cheek, and released him. She raised the Fracture above her head, and pointed at Fury, who looked severely amused by her antics.

"Right, first things first," she pointed at the metal band on her head."I want this off. I did what you wanted, I survived, I want it off."

"This is secret government agency," Fury reasoned."Having a fully functioning telepath running around it could compromise our entire operation."

"Why?" Dahlia's eyes narrowed."What are you hiding that you don't want me to know?"

"Dahlia-" Clint began, in a warning tone.

He was cut off rather abruptly as a knife flew at Dahlia's head.

Dahlia turned, saw it, and raised her hands to defend herself, knowing that it would be no use. Her telekinesis wasn't strong enough to halt flying objects, and she wasn't sure if was even working (courtesy of the metal band of doom on her head).

A heavy body smashed into her, knocking them both to the ground. She looked up to see Clint above her. The knife had missed him by mere centimeters.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"Later," Clint pulled her up and, ignoring the commotion in the room, made for the door, dragging Dahlia with him.

"What's happening?" Dahlia demanded, though she sounded terrified at the same time. Clint just shook his head, still pulling her along at a fast speed.

His finely tuned senses picked up the sound of a knife, or sword, being drawn out of a scabbard, and turned on his heel, shoving Dahlia up the corridor as he did so.

"Get somewhere safe," Clint ordered, drawing his bow. Dahlia hesitated as she took in Clint's soon-to-be opponent.

A tall, imposing man, dressed in black, carrying twin daggers, stood in the corridor. His eyes were trained on her and Clint, said eyes glowing a sharp blue. He was an alien, alright, but he wasn't Koruth. Koruth was shorter, and more fanatical. This one was cold and calculating. He looked like a formidable opponent, even for the assassin.

Clint seemed to sense that she hadn't obeyed him,"Go!"

Dahlia was snapped out of her reverie, and nodded hastily, beginning to back away. She knew that Clint had meant for her to run, but she wanted to see...if she was honest with herself, she wanted to see whether he survived against this new threat or not. She didn't want another person to die because of her.

Clint and the alien stared unblinkingly at each other, sizing each other up. Clint drew the arrow back, ready to shoot the moment the alien moved the slightest_ millimeter_. He didn't move, however. Just stared, frozen like a statue, but clearly also ready to attack, as he was in a fighting stance, clutching his daggers tightly.

"I am only here for the hybrid," the alien suddenly spoke, voice quiet, icy, and deadly serious."Koruth instructed me to cause no unnecessary bloodshed."

"Koruth?" Clint asked, trying to stall as he analyze the best way to bring the dagger wielding alien down."That'll be the one after Dahlia, right? Tall, masked, bad temper?"

"You're human humor is lost on me," the alien's eyes narrowed."It is unwise to attempt to stall me, _Agent Barton_."

Clint realized, far too late for his liking, that this one could _read his damn mind._ He decided, from that moment onwards, he would just assume that any alien with glowing blue eyes he came across could read his mind.

"Oh, yes, I can predict your every move," the alien smiled cruelly."If you were to engage me in combat you would most certainly lose."

"I'll take my chances," Clint replied, firing an arrow at the alien's leg, where he would be least likely to be able to parry it. However, he did, almost like he had...seen it coming. Clint gritted his teeth, firing two at once in an attempt to confuse his opponent. The alien managed to block one, but the other sunk into his shoulder, causing him to growl in pain, and pull it out.

"Two arrows," Clint muttered, reloading rapidly."I'll keep that in mind."

Just as he was about to lift his head and aim again, a flash of silver came down on his arm.

"Shit!" Clint cursed, jerking the targeted arm out of the way. The dagger left a fairly deep cut near his elbow. He didn't have time to worry about this, however, as the other dagger was thrust at his chest. Clint blocked it quickly with his bow, attempting to grab the alien's wrist and wrench the dagger out of his hand by force. The alien turned Clint's sudden attack against him, twisting _Clint's_ wrist, forcing the assassin to have to drop to his knees in order to stop his wrist from breaking.

"I told you, I can predict your every move," the alien muttered softly. Clint responded by slamming his bow into the alien's face, and attempting to break his grip. The alien finally showed anger, and somehow managed to twist Clint's wrist just right, so that it dislocated. Clint's teeth came together as he tried not to show that he was in pain. Showing pain only showed weakness.

"Now you die," the alien said coldly, bringing his knife down on Clint fast...

"NO!"

Dahlia hadn't gotten very far with her 'running away from evil alien trying to kill me'. In fact, she was barely five meters from the confrontation. She saw how Clint tried to twist the alien's wrist, how _he_ ended up on the floor instead, how he tried to break the alien's grip...

And then, when the knife came down, she lost it.

_Nobody_ else would die because of Koruth! _Nobody_ else would die for her!

SHE WOULDN'T ALLOW IT!

In her absolute, pure fury, she didn't even _need_ to construct a mental bubble first. She knew_ exactly_ how to bring the alien to his knees. In her absolute, pure fury, all she had to do was throw her hands out, and clench them into fists.

The alien reeled away from Clint, gagging and choking. He dropped his daggers, and clutched his stomach, dropping onto his knees. Clint watched in horrified fascination as he began half-choking, half-vomiting up blood. His reverie was quickly broken, and he dealt a swift kick to the alien's head, knocking him out cold.

Clint turned, and saw Dahlia standing there, arms out stretched, hands balled into fists, her eyes wide and furious. As he watched, she dropped her arms, the color draining from her face. Blood began dripping from her nose again as she walked slowly and shakily towards him.

"You're alive," she said, sounding relieved, before falling forward out of exhaustion.

Clint's arms instinctively shot out to catch her.

"NO!" Koruth screamed, flinging a blue glass oval into the nearest pillar. It shattered, and the pieces showed a broken up picture of the bleeding alien assassin.

He turned to the assembled lizard men, and nervous looking Melorans.

"I have lost patience," he snarled."We will move in_ immediately_."

**Ohhh, cliffy! What does he mean, move in? Very long chap, I know, but I wanted to get it all in.**

**Slight Clint/Dahlia in this chapter! Did you like how he just catches her instinctively now? And her powers have grown...in a dark way...**

**Don't worry, the alien assassin isn't gonna disappear yet ;), he be here next chapter.**

**Till next time,**

**Reganmacneil**

**P.S. thank you so much for all of your fantastic reviews! They encourage me to continue writing!**


	10. An Assassin a Day

**Sorry. I really am. I've been ill (ill as in throwing up and having a burning throat) and bed bound a while. I'll try and get things flowing as quickly as possible to make up for it. Also, exams are in session, and I am compelled to revise or my future will be over, you know, the usual...**

**I don't own the Avengers, only Dahlia Dreycourt, Koruth, and assassin dude.**

Chapter 9:An Assassin a Day...

Everything was blurry. Dahlia was vaguely aware that somebody was hurrying her along the corridor. She stumbled occasionally, disorientated and tired.

"What-" she began, unable to properly remember what had just taken place.

"I need to get you to a safe place," she recognized Clint's voice, interrupting her. Too tired to argue or inquire further, Dahlia nodded silently. Besides, she was certain that there had been some sort of alien assassin trying to kill her and, by extension, Clint, so getting to a safe place sounded pretty good.

Eventually, they stopped and Clint punched in a code. Dahlia heard a heavy door swing open, and was nearly shoved into it. She regained her footing, steadying herself on an object on the far side of the room. On further inspection, she realized that it was a bed. A simple bed, with a uncomfortable looking, lumpy mattress, a thin white sheet, on an iron frame. She turn around as Clint closed the door behind him, in the room with her. There was another keypad, presumably because the door locked itself the moment it closed.

"What happened? I don't remember much," Dahlia said almost immediately. When Clint didn't respond she smacked his shoulder angrily, trying to get him to pay attention.

It _did_ get his attention. He shot her a glare.

"What?"

"I just asked you a question!" Dahlia exclaimed. Clint frowned and looked down at his bruised wrist, touching it gently with the other hand.

He winced,"Oh. Right. You killed the bad guy, well done."

Dahlia's eyes widened as the hazy parts became clear,"I-no!"

"Well, alright, he wasn't completely dead," Clint winced again as he tested his injured wrist. He concluded that it was definitely dislocated, and grimaced."But 10/10 for trying."

"I don't know how I-" Dahlia sat down on the bed, trying to remember how exactly she had pulled the attack off. It was the most powerful thing she had ever been able to achieve, out of all of her abilities. Seeing as her telekinesis was probably her least reliable ability, it was even more mind blowing that she had been able to do-_that_."I mean, I remember a knife, and you underneath it...then anger."

"Anger?" Clint now noticed how shocked she looked. Still nursing his poor, alien abused wrist, he sat down beside her, his curiosity peaked.

"Yeah," Dahlia nodded."I just-I suppose I just got really...angry. And then...I just _knew_ what to do."

"You just got angry?" Clint smirked, a certain doctor with _breathtaking_ anger management issues."Sounds familiar."

His comment was apparently lost on her as she ignored him, and stared down at her hands. They were, thankfully, still intact, and the Fracture glowed in her palm. There were grooves in the skin where Dahlia had clenched her fist too hard.

"It's so small, isn't it?" Dahlia asked quietly."But it's caused so much-_trouble_. And _death_. And-"

Her hand clenched around it suddenly, and she raised her hand, about to throw it across the room. Clint's hand shot up and grabbed her wrist, forcing it down.

"You don't want to do that," he said, a voice of reason in an otherwise chaotic world. At least, to Dahlia, it felt like that.

She looked at him, disbelief clouding her eyes,"But I _hate_ it."

"You don't," Clint sighed."You hate the _villain_, not the object. There's a difference. So don't be an idiot and _r__emember it_."

His tone near the end was quite sharp. Dahlia flinched a little and looked away. Clint groaned as he realized he'd been a bit harsh calling her an idiot.

"Sorry," he muttered."I'm not good at this kind of thing."

"I'd noticed," Dahlia said, her tone unintentionally nasty. It quickly softened,"I mean, you're doing O.K. For an assassin."

"Thanks," Clint nodded at her."You're not doing so bad yourself with all..._this._"

He waved his hand in the air, realized to late that it was his injured wrist, and grimaced, lowering it quickly.

"What's wrong?" Dahlia asked worriedly. She looked at his wrist, and bit her lip."Oh. Ouch."

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Clint examined the damage closely."I can pop it back in on my own without to much trouble, I think."

"You _think_?" Dahlia shook her head."Think ain't good enough mister. Show me."

She held out her hands, placing the Fracture gently in her lap. Clint shook his head stubbornly, frowning.

"I've done this before," he protested.

"Don't care," Dahlia retorted."It's better if someone does it for you."

"What do _you_ know about it?" Clint demanded, still stubbornly leaning away from her.

"One too many trampolining accidents," Dahlia replied."Now come on, hurry up."

Eventually, after much arguing, Clint's wrist was in Dahlia's gentle grip. She examined it gingerly, before positioning her hands correctly.

"Alright..." Dahlia trailed off."Let's go!"

She popped it back into place quickly, earning a pained and surprised shout from Clint, who had been expecting her to count down or something. He glared at her for a second, before flexing his wrist.

"It worked," he said, clearly shocked.

"Told you," Dahlia smirked in a self-satisfied way. Her face fell, and she walked over to the door, trying to watch the corridor through the little glass window. She tapped her foot apprehensively, biting her lip.

"Can-can anyone get in here?" Dahlia asked.

Clint nodded,"Oh yeah, those with the code could definitely-"

"No, I meant if they didn't have the code," she tapped her fingers on the door, trying to sound casual."And had, as a completely random example, a bazooka. Or a sword. Or dangerous, deadly telekinetic powers that can blow things up and rip out people's-"

"That door is solid," Clint reassured her. Dahlia looked around, giving him a decidedly doubtful expression.

"You sure?" She asked. Clint sighed, nodding.

"I'm sure."

Dahlia looked down at her feet, before sliding down to sit, cross legged, on the floor. She bowed her head completely, so that Clint could not see her face. Everything hit her again, now that she had nothing else to occupy her. Her Mother was dead. Several people were trying to kill her. She was apparently capable of taking somebody to the brink of death by merely thinking about it.

She felt tears threaten to spill over and inhaled.

"Are you...you know, O.K?" Clint asked, sounding uncomfortable.

Dahlia gave him a look of utter disbelief,"Take a wild guess?"

"Right," he eyed her apprehensively."You want to...talk about it?"

"No," Dahlia replied sullenly.

Clint exhaled with relief,"Oh thank god."

He saw Dahlia looking at him, eyebrow raised, and shook his head hurriedly. He didn't want to make her feel worse that she already did.

"Not that I don't want to, I just-"

"It's fine," Dahlia rolled her eyes, though making Clint uncomfortable cheered her up a considerable amount. She almost immediately felt bad-he had, after all, saved her life, and was the only one that she could rely on to be at least _partially_ honest with her.

Clint looked at the psychic curiously as she laughed under her breath.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Clint raised an eyebrow at her, and she relented."Oh, I was just thinking that out of everybody I've met today, the assassin is the one I..." Dahlia looked at him, as if deciding something."Trust the most."

Clint was silent. Dahlia bit her lip, and went over to the door, her face reddening with embarrassment.

The silence was becoming very uncomfortable.

"I'm just doing my job," Clint said eventually. Dahlia turned around to face him again, and he could see the blush receding from her face. She look down at her feet, suddenly shy for some reason. Clint felt like he had offended her somehow, and stood up, walking over to her and touching her shoulder briefly. Dahlia looked up at him, and to his surprise gave him a small smile.

"I'm grateful for it," she said. Clint couldn't help but smile back."Thank you."

"People don't normally thank me," he said truthfully. The psychic's smile widened.

"I'm not normal people."

Clint opened his mouth to reply, but movement behind the reinforced door caught his attention. His expression was immediately serious as his eyes focused on the party in the corridor. Dahlia noticed this sudden change, and frowned.

"What?" She asked. Clint nodded at something behind her, and she turned.

S.H.I.E.L.D agents were half dragging, half escorting Koruth's assassin down the corridor. Dahlia's eyes widened as she took in his weakened and bloody state. A metal band was placed around his head, just like Dahlia, but he seemed to sense her gaze on him. His head turned sideways and his eyes glowed as he stared, unblinkingly, at her. Dahlia realized that he was staring at the glowing Fracture, visible because she was pressing her hands hard against the glass with suppressed anger. She held his intense stare until he was out of sight.

"What will happen to him?" She questioned, through gritted teeth.

"He'll be interrogated," Clint said, eyes fixed on the back of her head."Then either imprisoned or-"

"Killed," Dahlia's fists clenched."I want to see the interrogation."

Clint swallowed,"I don't think-"

"I want to see the interrogation," Dahlia repeated, through gritted teeth. Clint was silent. She whipped around, and looked him right in the eye, a scowl on her face.

"_Well_?" She demanded. Clint sighed wearily, her mood swings beginning to grate on his well trained nerves.

Dahlia saw this, and cleared her throat,"Err...please?"

"I understand why you want-look, I _get_ it," Clint said, deciding that the best way to deal with the psychic was to be straightforward. She didn't seem like the person that would appreciate him beating around the bush."You want to tear this Koruth guy and all of his minions limb from limb, right?"

Dahlia was taken aback by the assassin's almost brutally forward question. She opened her mouth to immediately deny his gruesome statement, say that he was being ridiculous, that she wasn't like that...but then her Mother's smiling face appeared at the forefront of her mind, and her mouth snapped shut.

She nodded once, teeth abruptly chomping down onto her bottom lip again.

"But..." Clint paused, not knowing how to handle this without offending or upsetting her somehow. He ploughed on anyway, deciding that it was near impossible not to do either with Dahlia in the mood she was."The alien that attacked us-_you_...he's in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D now."

"_So_?" Dahlia snapped, glaring. Clint was almost thankful she was offended rather than upset. He really didn't know what to do with crying people, as previous events had shown.

"_So_," he continued."You don't have any form of clearance, and-"

"This guy's boss killed my MOTHER!" Dahlia shouted, her fists smacking down angrily on his chest."Is that clearance enough for you?"

"Dahlia, calm-"

"No!" She smacked him on the chest again,"_Stop-_" SMACK,"_Telling_-" SMACK, "_Me_-" SMACK, "_To_-" SMACK, "_Be_-" SMACK, "CALM!"

"Can I tell you to quit hitting me?" Clint demanded, grabbing her wrists and narrowing his eyes at her, unamused. Dahlia met his stare head on. The phrase 'if looks could kill' jumped into Clint's head.

"I'll stop hitting you when somebody explains things to me!" She tried to hit him again, but Clint's grip only tightened. The psychic struggled for a few seconds, before giving up. She contented herself with aiming a kick at his shin.

Clint grimaced, releasing her,"You know what? I really, _really_ don't like you."

"Well _good_!" Dahlia snapped, storming to the other end of the room."Because I_ hate_ you!"

Clint folded his arms, his scowl so pronounced he wouldn't be surprised if he got permanent lines afterwards.

"I'm sorry to be such an inconvenience, what with saving your life and all," he said sarcastically."By all means, just say the word and I'll stop."

Dahlia's expression did not soften one bit. If anything, it became all the more annoyed.

Mostly because she knew that he had a point, sarcastic though it was. He had saved her life...a lot. Granted, his sarcastic demeanor when annoyed, and his frustrating knack of being right annoyed her...but she at least owed him the courtesy of not being beaten up.

"Fine, fine, point taken," she grumbled, folding her arms. She glanced at the door, calculating just how hard it would be to blast the door off it's hinges and go interrogate the assassin herself-before reality came crashing down on her. Even if she was able to move the door, she would have to evade Clint. And if she managed to evade Clint she didn't know where the alien was anyway. Defeated, the psychic dropped down onto the uncomfortable bed and groaned.

Clint eyed her like a hawk, as was his forte, ready to act if she decided to do anything dumb like blow the door up or knock him out. He saw her flop like a rag doll down onto the bed, and relaxed a little, his gaze wandering to the door for a short span.

Clint gave a start as he spotted somebody on the other side.

**Yeah, O.K, so kill me. Go on, get it over with. Use whatever you like.**

**So, know that's over...this is short and uneventful. I know. I really, really know and I'm really, really sorry. Anyhoo...I'm not gonna set a date for the next chapter because, let's be honest, my promises to update are never kept and it's unfair to excite people (assuming, of course, that this story excites you. Which this chapter probably does not).**

**So...until next time!**

**Reganmacneil**


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